Do everyone a favour by NOT comparing this film to the Lord of the Rings extravaganza. There IS no comparison. Enough said.

For those of you who have been on another planet during the HP takeover, the second instalment of Harry's adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has been praised and panned, which just shows that you can't please everyone. The screenplay does inevitably simplify (and detract from) the book's plot, skipping some scenes I was looking forward to seeing on screen, but there are enough good bits during the film's 161 minutes to please most people. Alternative titles could have been Watch Ron Almost Wet His Pants for Two Hours, and Wow, We Really Can Fit in Much More Computer Animation This Time. It's a slick production with some great special effects, but some parts inevitably grate, notably Dobby, the magic world's answer to Jar Jar Binks. But there was brilliance in the sequences featuring the Ford Anglia, the supercharged Quidditch chase, and the appearance of Dumbledore's phoenix. Remember: although it's ostensibly for kids, it's a tad scary in places (depending on how fond you are of spiders).