In theaters

HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS, directed by Chris Columbus, written by Steve Kloves, based on the novel by J.K. Rowling, 161 minutes, rated PG.

Imagine suffering the sort of hellish childhood Harry Potter has had to endure – the murder of his parents by the vicious Lord Voldemort, the feeling of being unwanted and unloved by his abusive relatives, a lightning bolt scar on his forehead and, just recently, the official condemnation of Lewiston’s own Jesus Party.

Sure, that last one is worth a snort and a giggle, but when you add it all up, the totality of Harry’s situation is enough to make any Muggle feel like a Mudblood.

Mr. Potter’s gift – and the main reason he remains so popular – is that he has the courage to carry on in spite of life’s potholes, rising above the seemingly insurmountable lows of his situation to scale new highs on his way to becoming a young man.

Getting there has been a tough scrabble, for sure, one peppered with a host of curious obstacles, such as giant spiders run amok, a towering serpent with a mean bite and a chess game gone berserk. But as the new “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” proves, it’s an imaginative, often entertaining journey into self-realization that’s been well worth the trip.

The film, the second in author J.K. Rowling’s best-selling series, is once again directed by Chris Columbus from a script by Steve Kloves. As with any sequel, a whiff of deja vu hangs over the movie and steals some of its magic, but not all of it. Better yet, the film is surprisingly loose in spite of the rigid framework of its plot. What it has that the first film lacked is a breezy sense of confidence – from the acting down to the storytelling – which is no small feat considering the overwhelming hype and expectations that have surrounded it.

As the film opens, young Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), now 12, is finishing an insufferable summer at home with his vicious relatives, the Dursleys, when a bug-eyed elf named Dobby (voice of Toby Jones) suddenly appears to warn him against returning to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Without telling Harry exactly why he shouldn’t return, the elusive Dobby snaps his fingers and disappears, leaving Harry more intrigued than concerned about what awaits him at school.

After being rescued by his best friend, Ron Weasely (Rupert Grint), who uses his father’s high-flying Ford Anglia to literally rip Harry free from the Dursleys’ poisonous clutch, Harry zips back to Hogwarts and reconnects with his other best friend, Hermione Granger (Emma Watson). There, the trio learns about the dangers Dobby previously predicted – evil is indeed looming deep within Hogwarts’ Chamber of Secrets and it has been let loose to undo them all.

Just what that evil is won’t be revealed here, but it’s potent and it’s dark, just colorful enough to spark dread in any 8-year-old while keeping parents pleasantly entertained.

The episodic storyline that ensues crams in as much of the book’s more dramatic elements as possible while, in the process, sacrificing almost all of its subtlety, just as in the last film.

Indeed, Columbus’ focus is less on the book’s more introspective moments than on the sort of crowd-pleasing scenes that tend to make a nearly three-hour movie seem more like two hours. Aiding that cause is production designer Stuart Craig, whose rich, beautiful sets are complex and interesting even during those moments when the film is neither.

Fortunately, “Secrets” allows Columbus the opportunity to freshen the pot with Rowling’s new characters, from Kenneth Branaugh’s Gilderoy Lockhart, a preening wizard whose ego knows no bounds, to Jason Isaacs’ duplicitous Lucius Malfoy and the bathroom-dwelling Moaning Myrtle (Julie Walters Henderson), a dead girl with a hot temper who steals each scene she’s in.

With Robbie Coltrane back as Hagrid, Alan Rickman as Severus Snape and Maggie Smith as Minerva McGonagall, it’s Richard Harris’ posthumous performance as Professor Albus Dumbledore that gives the film its unexpected emotional weight and its bittersweet undercurrent.

The actor, who died three weeks before the film’s release, effortlessly grounds the movie, balancing Columbus’ frequently hysterical mood with the stalwart calm and reserve it needs.

With the third Potter film, “The Prisoner of Azkaban,” slated for a 2004 release, the series’ new director, Alfonso Cuaron (“The Little Princess,” “Y Tu Mama Tambien”), finds himself in a curious pickle – how best to replace the irreplaceable Harris and how best to keep this remarkable series as fresh and as true as the books’ plucky fans will undoubtedly demand.

That won’t be easy, but with Rowling’s vision behind him – not to mention a rumored $200 million budget – no one should be surprised if Cuaron succeeds.

Grade: B+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, Tuesdays and Thursdays on WLBZ 2 and WCSH 6, and are archived on RottenTomatoes.com. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.