While I am usually in despair when a movie abandons its plot for a third act given over entirely to action, I have no problem with the way Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ends, because it has been pointing toward this ending, hinting about it, preparing us for it, all the way through. What a glorious movie.
Roger Ebert (2004). “Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2005”, p.274, Andrews McMeel Publishing