Entering the world of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" is like returning to a wondrous summer camp after a year's break. You see old friends, meet some new ones, and you're reminded of the magical appeal of a place far away from home. Only after becoming acclimated do you notice what bugs you.

Last year's first entry in the Potter movie series, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," may not have exceeded J.K. Rowling's book, but it gave a good taste of what made the material special. Rowling's vision is so richly conceived - with wizards secretly inhabiting Muggles' (non-magical folk) society and attending a gothic English countryside school called Hogwarts - that director Chris Columbus and writer Steve Kloves aimed primarily to translate it to the screen with reverence.

The first movie excelled as you shared 11-year-old orphan Harry's sense of discovery of a fantastic world and his own wizard powers. It eventually bogged down in plot, never q