Date: Saturday April 16 2022
Time: 12:35pm
Party: 2 (my mom and I)
Director: David Yates
Writers: JK Rowling, Steve Kloves
Composer: James Newton Howard
Notable Cast:
Newt Scamander- Eddie Redmayne
Jacob Kowalski- Dan Fogler
Albus Dumbledore- Jude Law
Aberfoth Dumbledore- Richard Coyle
Credence- Ezra Miller
Grindlewald- Mads Mikkelsen
Lally- Jessica Williams
Queenie- Alison Sudol
Intro
I honestly never thought I’d see another movie in the
theaters again… the last 2 years have been pretty rough in that regard.
Thankfully things are normal enough where I felt
comfortable about going. Doesn’t mean I didn’t spend the first few days
afterwards being paranoid about getting sick (a common mindset whenever I spend
anytime outside the house these days) but I’m happy to report I haven’t.
So I have more confidence there’ll be more movie trips in
the near future- and we’ll continue to be mindful of our surroundings while
doing so. (The theater we were in was half full so we had ample space on either
side of us)
Yeah, 2 years later, I still don’t want to use any key
words or phrases or refer to this plague by name on any internet platform.
That’s my choice and I hope anyone reading can respect that.
Franchise notes
As of April 27 (the day I’m writing this), there’s been no
official word about whether Fantastic Beasts will survive long enough to
fulfill its 5 film contract… in my opinion, this movie has done enough to
warrant a proper conclusion.
A lot of people have called this a “cursed franchise”
because so many things have prompted delays and personnel changes. But with
something as successful as the Harry Potter series as your predecessor, it’s a
tough job for anybody.
Obviously the 2020 shutdowns have impacted this particular
film’s production and release. Then there’s the various allegations. The droves
of people wanting to divorce JK Rowling from a literary world she created
because of some bigoted comments she’d made in recent years (I won’t go into detail as to what they were and I'm not condoning/supporting any of her commentary. But I also don't think it's fair for everything she’d overcome in her personal life to be overshadowed by "cancel culture" or whatever else you want to call it).
Then there’s the abuse allegations against Johnny Depp that
got him fired as the franchise’s villain… I’m not sure of the exact timeline, but it came out some time after this dismissal that his wife was the abuser and there are
online petitions demanding she’s removed from the Aquaman sequel. This debate is
still ongoing- again, I’m still not fully up to date but it sounds like the
court proceedings are already pretty heated.
Finally, Ezra Miller getting arrested (again) for assault shortly after this movie was released… ugh, it never ends.
I will say, though, that the replacement they got for Grindlewald was really good. No offense to Johnny Depp, I liked him as this character too... but the guy in this movie is the one they probably should've cast in the first place. For the greatest dark wizard before Voldemort, they needed someone a little more menacing and maybe a little less quirky. And it's a pet peeve of mine when continuity between movies gets messed up.
Richard Harris unfortunately passed away after the Chamber of Secrets so Dumbledore had to be recast anyway... but I never fully warmed up to Michael Gambon because Richard Harris matched how I pictured Dumbledore while reading the books.
At least with Grindlewald, the transition was a lot easier- considering the movie goes into some pretty dark places...
Movie commentary
Some mild spoilers ahead...
After the previous movie ended, I really wasn’t happy with
the results. You can’t just drop a bombshell like “Credence, you are a Dumbledore” and expect us to just accept that. Plus Queenie siding with Grindlewald because she thinks his new world will allow her to marry the love of
her life- who happens to be a Muggle.
Empire Strikes Back is still the worst cliffhanger in
cinematic history, but this was a close second for me.
I’m happy to say I enjoyed this movie a lot more and I feel
more confident we’ll see more of them… hopefully the powers that be will agree.
How he plans to succeed in this endeavor involves a special
magical critter, which puts him and his supporters directly in the path of our star, magizoologist, Newt Scamander.
He’s in a forest expecting the arrival of a new baby deer
critter called a qilin when Credence and some other wizards kill its mother
and steal it. What they don’t know is that a second one had been born as well.
Something Newt, Dumbledore and their allies hope to use to stop their plans.
These critters are notable because they can see into
peoples soul to determine if they’re good or bad and can't be manipulated, the very reason they’re often used to determine elections... and Grindlewald does some really dark stuff to help fix the results in his favor.
Real talk for a second:
That opening scene kinda put me off for the first
several minutes of the movie. Looking back on it, maybe it’s because it was
basically a magical reinterpretation of that scene in Bambi that traumatized a
lot of us as kids.
I think I just have a hard time digesting anything that
involves kidnapping animals (especially babies) with the intent of misusing and
abusing them. If these critters were real instead of CGI, PETA would have a
field day… actually they’d object to this entire franchise, but I digress… the
movie gets a lot better, trust me.
In Brooklyn, Jacob is still reconciling the fact Queenie left him and his bakery is in disarray because of it. Whether he likes it or not, he gets drawn back into the magical world. How this is accomplished is also our introduction to a new witch, Lally. Kinda fitting that she's a Charms professor at Hogwarts because she charmed me almost immediately. She has a great sense of humor but is also very gifted. Through Dumbledore, Jacob is also given a wand (without a core) that’ll grant him access to the magical world but not much else.
So we have a ragtag team of wizards, witches and Jacob gathered together to assist Dumbledore in his plans. This also includes a Lestrange (Leta's brother) and Newt’s assistant. All of them are given roles to play, some of which are not fully disclosed to the others until later on in the film. It’s a measure meant to counteract the fact Grindlewald now has the ability to see the future. Another "gift" from the qilin
Dumbledore continues to play secretive and speak in riddles
but he actually does reveal more about himself so it’s not like we’re kept
completely in the dark. We also spend a little more time with his brother
Aberforth- the guy playing the younger version of him only had one brief scene
in the final Deadly Hallows movie to go off of but nailed his role. Ornery but loyal
to a fault.
The whole thing with Credence being a Dumbledore is
finally explained… I previously threw a fit because we only had 3 siblings in
the original books (the two brothers and Ariana)… it turns out I had the
generation wrong and things suddenly made a lot more sense. And I’ll leave it
there.
Among the Easter eggs from the Harry Potter series- a brief
appearance of younger professor McGonagall and (in reference to the Great Hall
scene) a ginger haired student that could possibly be a Weasley.
Another appears in a message Newt has to deliver to a
certain person in power… and we quickly learn what happens when someone decides
to do “what is easy” instead “what is right”.
In the scuffle resulting from this, Newt’s brother Theseus
is thrown in an underground prison and he needs to help get him out. That whole
scene is easily one of biggest highlights of the film- that is, if you enjoy
Newt’s character quirks.
There’s also a cool gross out factor. In this prison,
inmates eventually get eaten by a large scorpion type critter and whatever’s
left is chucked so the babies can devour the remains. Cool and efficient but
still kinda gross. So it’s fun and thrilling to watch the two of them make
their escape from that hellhole.
Everything builds up to the election and Dumbledore’s Army
(sorry, couldn’t resist) have to play a calculated shell game with their qilin and multiple identical briefcases.
All one can do is just kick back and enjoy the show.
Inevitably, it all comes to a head and ALL of the characters
have their own part to play. Grindlewald isn’t defeated quite yet, but Dumbledore
finally succeeds in releasing himself from their blood pact. How this is
accomplished, admittedly, felt rushed and probably only made perfect sense to
JK Rowling… but I’m not gonna complain. We at least got a solid ending unlike
the previous film.
They also resolve the rift between Jacob and Queenie so
they finally get back together.
It turns out that the world Grindlewald promised wasn’t
going to fulfill her wishes. In fact, it would have made their union virtually
impossible. Let’s just say his opinion of Muggles has shades of Voldemort’s
personal philosophy.
One loose end still remains and apparently the conclusion
is still a decade of film time away from coming to pass.
(The movie takes place in 1932; the legendary duel where
Dumbledore defeats Grindlewald isn’t until 1945)
Grade: A-
(Things got a little jumbled and hard to follow at times, but the edges eventually smoothed out. Vast improvement over the previous installment. I believe I gave that a B+... ok, I gave it a B-... yeah, I really didn't like it that much. Cliff-hangers bite!)
Trailers
Jurassic World: Dominion
(This is gonna be a helluva finale... and the gang's all back togther again)
Top Gun: Maverick
(Super excited for this... but something tells me those IMAX-style flight sequences could cause trouble for people with motion sickness issues, they're crazy fast)
DC League of Super-Pets
(This trailer got a lot of laughs from the audience, so I imagine it'll an easy sell for parents with kids. Plus The Rock and Kevin Hart doing another movie together- yes, please :D )
The Elvis biopic with Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker
(Not sure how the Baz Luhrmann production will impact this film... hopefully it's not super over the top like The Great Gatsby was. But it looks like they got a good guy to play The King himself... hopefully the movie does him justice)
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