orangerful (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
orangerful) wrote2019-10-06 10:42 pm
orangerful) wrote2019-10-06 10:42 pm
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movie thoughts: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
I had no intention of watching Fantastic Beasts. I had fallen out of love with the HP fandom after the 7th book. When it was announced it would be a 5-film series, I decided I wasn't interested in committing to yet another story set in Rowling's magical world. But then ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rogueslayer452 linked to Pop Culture Detective and I started watching the videos on that channel and stumbled upon this one:
So I picked up the DVD at work on Friday and watched it over the weekend.
side note: my new movie watching strategy is to pretend everything is a limited run Netflix series and just watch them in hour chunks. This idea used to bother me, felt like I was doing a disservice to the film maker's not watching their entire work in one sitting. But now I've decided that maybe their film makers and their editors are doing me the disservice because I don't have time for 2+ hour movies on a regular basis.
ANYWAY! I watched the movie and I did enjoy it!
Have some bullet points:
- I liked Newt a LOT. I liked that he wasn't a "chosen one", just a guy doing his thing. (though I am a bit concerned that he goes around trashing places all the time and then repairs them with magic. Seems a little careless!)
- I liked Jacob as a side kick too and I hope that we find out he and the girl reconnected afterwards, even if that was breaking the American wizarding laws.
- up until the last 10 minutes, I was really enjoying Newt's relationship with Tina. I was disappointed that in the last moments of the film, they seemed to be forcing a romantic relationship into the story. I liked them as two adults with goals who knew how to work together.
- I'm of two minds about how the American Wizarding world was set up/portrayed. It felt like JK was trying to subtly reference things actually going on in American society at the time, but instead should have just dropped that and gone for it. Or not gone for it at all. I dunno, it felt like there was something bubbling under the surface there and I wasn't quite sure what it was.
- It was too bad that the antagonist was so EVIL. Not Grindlewald but the woman who adopted the children and abused them. I was hoping for a few more shades of gray there, but NOPE, evil.
- which is too bad because the story of Creedence and his obscurus was full of gray - literally and metaphorically! The idea that this cloud of anger is created when a magical person must suppress their true selves and if they can control it or be separate from it. That story sounded really intriguing and I thought that was going to have more to it.
- there were a few "goof ball" moments that felt like they were meant for children (which is funny since the film got a PG-13 rating) and went on a bit too long.
- I didn't expect the ending to be just so very bittersweet. I could almost hear "Where do we go from here?" playing in the background as everyone trudged outside into the memory wiping rain.
- kind of sad the casting for the main group couldn't have had more diversity. Yes, I saw a few POC scattered in the background, and the President was POC, but barely in the film. Would have been so easy to cast Jacob or even the women as POC. Just seems a shame to miss that opportunity on this revisit to the world.
Overall, despite my nitpicks, I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I thought I would but I would still only say 3 stars. I did put the sequel on hold to see if Redmayne's performance was altered at all. Hopefully I will have that for this coming weekend's breakfast viewing.
Did you see Fantastic Beasts? Has anyone seen any interviews with Redmayne or Yates or Rowling about this character of Newt Scamander and his portrayal in the movie? I'm wondering if this was all in JK's script or Yates' interpretation or just Redmayne's take on it.
rogueslayer452 linked to Pop Culture Detective and I started watching the videos on that channel and stumbled upon this one:So I picked up the DVD at work on Friday and watched it over the weekend.
side note: my new movie watching strategy is to pretend everything is a limited run Netflix series and just watch them in hour chunks. This idea used to bother me, felt like I was doing a disservice to the film maker's not watching their entire work in one sitting. But now I've decided that maybe their film makers and their editors are doing me the disservice because I don't have time for 2+ hour movies on a regular basis.
ANYWAY! I watched the movie and I did enjoy it!
Have some bullet points:
- I liked Newt a LOT. I liked that he wasn't a "chosen one", just a guy doing his thing. (though I am a bit concerned that he goes around trashing places all the time and then repairs them with magic. Seems a little careless!)
- I liked Jacob as a side kick too and I hope that we find out he and the girl reconnected afterwards, even if that was breaking the American wizarding laws.
- up until the last 10 minutes, I was really enjoying Newt's relationship with Tina. I was disappointed that in the last moments of the film, they seemed to be forcing a romantic relationship into the story. I liked them as two adults with goals who knew how to work together.
- I'm of two minds about how the American Wizarding world was set up/portrayed. It felt like JK was trying to subtly reference things actually going on in American society at the time, but instead should have just dropped that and gone for it. Or not gone for it at all. I dunno, it felt like there was something bubbling under the surface there and I wasn't quite sure what it was.
- It was too bad that the antagonist was so EVIL. Not Grindlewald but the woman who adopted the children and abused them. I was hoping for a few more shades of gray there, but NOPE, evil.
- which is too bad because the story of Creedence and his obscurus was full of gray - literally and metaphorically! The idea that this cloud of anger is created when a magical person must suppress their true selves and if they can control it or be separate from it. That story sounded really intriguing and I thought that was going to have more to it.
- there were a few "goof ball" moments that felt like they were meant for children (which is funny since the film got a PG-13 rating) and went on a bit too long.
- I didn't expect the ending to be just so very bittersweet. I could almost hear "Where do we go from here?" playing in the background as everyone trudged outside into the memory wiping rain.
- kind of sad the casting for the main group couldn't have had more diversity. Yes, I saw a few POC scattered in the background, and the President was POC, but barely in the film. Would have been so easy to cast Jacob or even the women as POC. Just seems a shame to miss that opportunity on this revisit to the world.
Overall, despite my nitpicks, I enjoyed this movie a lot more than I thought I would but I would still only say 3 stars. I did put the sequel on hold to see if Redmayne's performance was altered at all. Hopefully I will have that for this coming weekend's breakfast viewing.
Did you see Fantastic Beasts? Has anyone seen any interviews with Redmayne or Yates or Rowling about this character of Newt Scamander and his portrayal in the movie? I'm wondering if this was all in JK's script or Yates' interpretation or just Redmayne's take on it.
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But I'm probably one of the few people on the planet who isn't a big fan of Eddie Redmayne. I liked him fine in this movie, but was pretty meh on the rest. (Other than the hotness that is Colin Farrell.)
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Felt like a total waste of Colin Farrell though.
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The trashing-places-and-then-magicking-everything-better thing squicked me out in an intangible way as well, but that was starting to become a thing in the latter Harry Potter movies too. (Slughorn trashing the Muggle's house where he was hiding out comes to mind.) Same deal with, for example, Wanda Maximoff chucking all those cars out of the parking garage in Captain America: Civil War. I know it's not actually anybody's property getting destroyed, but it does make my skin crawl.
It felt like JK was trying to subtly reference things actually going on in American society at the time, but instead should have just dropped that and gone for it.
Yeah, it felt like some sort of commentary was being considered, but then they sort of forgot about it by the time the finale happened? I dunno. I can't remember whether they dig deeper into whatever it was in the sequel or not. I haven't seen the sequel, but I read the screenplay, and it seemed similar: some Point is being made, but then the finale happened and no one cares anymore because Action Scene!
I loved everything about Creedence, and I generally love Ezra Miller anyway. "Bittersweet" is the word for it. Like they solved the mystery and the danger is gone now, but at what cost? The goal suddenly shifted to "We must protect the monster!" and I was here for it.
That said, I'm going to disagree with your "the antagonist was evil!" take. She seemed just the right shade of "Self-Righteous Monster Who Believes She's Doing the Right Thing" to me. Maybe the fact that I took a queer reading on Creedence (and not just because it's Ezra Miller, but that helped) colored this somewhat, but the idea of a Bible-thumper beating their kids into holy obedience and forcing them to suppress their identities and opinions rang VERY true. Like, there are people like that out here in the real world, never mind this fantasy universe, and some of them are WORSE.
I haven't seen any interviews with the actors, director, or writer, but I have watched that Pop Culture Detective video a few times. He's great. The world needs more Hufflepuffs. If only we could've kept Colin Farrell...
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Sequel...oh sequel. I just finished it and, yeah, again it was like she had a point to make but then fell back to WWII metaphor. Which is sad because she could have gone the whole Prof. Xavier and Magneto route with these two. I will whine later in a real post.
I think I would have liked a bit more for the antagonist to make me fully buy in that she was a person. I never really got the vibe beyond her bribing children with food so they would hand out fliers. To make an abusive, manipulative relationship work, you have to show a caring side. Like Ferrell was doing with Creedence. I mean, the parallel was right there! She just felt like a stereotype and I had no sympathy for her at all.
They should have kept Farrell. Agreed. I mean, I was spoiled for the "reveal" at the end but he has the same haircut as Grindlewald so it was obvious it was him! NO TWO PEOPLE HAVE THE SAME HAIR! :P