Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. 11/16/18 (1 Viewer)

[Jake Lipson]

Well, I'm glad to hear it's doing better where you are.

Edit: Mine is now up to 21 tickets sold.

 

[Wayne_j]

I had fun tonight but the plot was way too thick. It was like J.K. Rowling tried to put all the plot twists of a novel into a 2 hour movie.

Spoiler thoughts below:

Spoiler

Dumbledore as Defence teacher? That could be but by the time Tom Riddle attends Hogwarts Dumbledore is the transfiguration professor. And what was McGonagall doing during the time that Dumbledore was teaching Transfiguration now that she was there way before she was previously thought to have been.

Nagini is a woman who becomes a snake at night and will eventually loose her ability to turn back to a woman?

And finally we found out that Dumbledore has a brother that nobody knew about.

I will probably need to watch this a couple of times to make sure I caught everything.

 

[Jake Lipson]

That wasn't very good at all.

I loved the first Fantastic Beasts film and was fully on board with that one. This one was my most anticipated movie of the year. I was ready and willing to love it.

It did not deliver on my anticipation.

No spoilers from me. I agree with Wayne. There was way too much going on for anything to be fully developed. It's like when I throw a toy for my dog, and instead of retrieving that one, he comes back with a different toy from another part of the house. It just goes from scene to scene to scene seemingly at random without any kind of connective structure. There are twists that aren't set up properly and thus don't feel earned, and no one has enough screen time to have an actual arc.

For being the title, the movie isn't really even that much about Grindlewald. It felt like "Graves" had more to do in the previous film. Depp isn't a problem like I thought he would be -- he doesn't shit the bed, but he's just kind of there. The best thing in the first movie was the group dynamic between Newt, Tina, Queenie and Jacob, which is almost completely gone in this film because they are separated for much of it.

The new characters being thrown in instead aren't given enough to do to truly resonate. I liked the first film because it was a new story with new characters that wasn't terribly concerned with being a Harry Potter prequel, but this one absolutely is bending over backwards to become one. However, most of the Potter iconography in the movie is just there as fan service window dressing and not because it has an essential function in this muddled narrative.

And yet, for as much exposition as this movie throws at us, it also felt like not much really happened, because it isn't a complete story; it exists to set up the board for the next installment. Every Harry Potter book and film took that character on a complete journey, even though they were also part of a larger whole. This did not do that for anyone in the film at all, really.

This is the first Wizarding World film I have no desire to see again in theaters. I didn't aggressively hate it, and I'll get the Blu-ray for the sake of the collection, but it is certainly the biggest disappointment for me this year.

My audience did not applaud at the end or audibly react to anything, even the parts that seemed engineered to generate fan cheers. It was the most subdued first showing I've ever been a part of, and not just because there were less than 30 people there.

It sure looks nice, and the cast tries, but the storytelling just wasn't there at the level where it should be. Most of the ideas here are good ones, but they aren't presented in an orderly fashion and don't have enough time to be fully explored because there are too many of them for one film.

JKR has an endlessly creative mind and is a brilliant novelist, but since these films aren't more books, a professional screenwriter should come in and help her figure out how to streamline all of her ideas into a cohesive whole that works for the screen. Steve Kloves, who wrote all the Harry Potter films except Order of the Phoenix, seems like a natural person to do this; he's already a producer on the Fantastic Beasts films, and was involved enough to get the PGA mark, and JKR likes him and trusts him. In the future, Warner Bros. should lean on that, not to take away from JKR's directing the narrative, but to help it become clearer and more focused. It feels like no one second-guessed her in the making of this film and perhaps should have.

I would not mind at all if the next film were co-written by Rowling and Kloves, but I think she's already written it and they're shooting next summer. So there might not be time (or inclination) to mess with it. We'll see.

 

[Jake Lipson]

In more fun related news, How It Should Have Ended posted this funny video regarding the first film. No spoilers in it for the new one as it is entirely related to the first one.

 

[benbess]

That wasn't very good at all.

I loved the first Fantastic Beasts film and was fully on board with that one. This one was my most anticipated movie of the year. I was ready and willing to love it.

It did not deliver on my anticipation.

No spoilers from me. I agree with Wayne. There was way too much going on for anything to be fully developed. It's like when I throw a toy for my dog, and instead of retrieving that one, he comes back with a different toy from another part of the house. It just goes from scene to scene to scene seemingly at random without any kind of connective structure. There are twists that aren't set up properly and thus don't feel earned, and no one has enough screen time to have an actual arc...

Yikes. Thanks for the review. My anticipation for this movie was very high, and now I'll try to bring my thoughts down to earth. Darn. But thanks again.

 

[Wayne_j]

I liked the film better than Jake, but you definitely should lower your expectations.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Wayne, how was your audience's reaction? Mine was nonexistent.

 

[Wayne_j]

mine was moderate. Not very excited but not dead either.

 

[Wayne_j]

I was going to go again tonight but as we are expecting 8 inches of snow I will have to put it off.

Below is an excellent review and I agree with everything he says except that I didn't find the movie boring so I would rate the film around a C+ instead of a C that this critic gave it.



Big fans of the Harry Potter books might be upset because this movie severely contradicts the books in ways that it didn't need to.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Collider has a good article about problems with the ending twist which I agree with. Obviously, don't click this link until after you've seen the movie, because it contains major spoilers:

http://www.collider.com/fantastic-beasts-2-ending-explained/

 

[JQuintana]

This is an e-mail that I sent to the IMAX corporate headquarters in Canada:

We live around the corner from the IMAX theatre in Ancaster Ontario. Since the theatre was built we have tried to attend every movie we wanted to see in IMAX. All of a sudden incomprehensibly, IMAX seems to no longer be showing movies in 3D!, even 3D extravaganzas like Marvel movies and the new “Fantastic Beast!” We have been very loyal customers and now feel abandoned as we are forced to attend movies in inferior systems like Real 3D. Why are you doing this?

This is their reply:

Dear Terry,

Our apologies for not meeting you expectation at this IMAX theatre.

We appreciate you took the time to give us this important feedback.

Over the last few years 3D has not been the audience draw it used to be and thus we exhibit less 3D content.

However, we will be distributing 3D for Mortal Engines and Aquaman , coming up in December . Please check local listing, as some shows may be in 2D.

Thanks for being an IMAX fan and I want to point out that all IMAX content whether 2D or 3D receives our proprietary picture and audio mastering procedures, to give you the best cinema experience possible.

I look forward to hearing from you again.

Regards
D. K. (I have withheld his name)
CQG IMAX Corp.

I don't understand why you wrote them a letter being that you appear to be up to speed on a lot of 3D stuff.

The news of the demise of 3D at IMAX was over a year ago.

One of many articles about it:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/is-golden-age-3d-officially-1025843

 

[steve jaros]

Saw this in "Imax" today:

The pacing was ... pretty unrelenting. There is more magical guff going on than in all the other Potter films.

The story was ... convoluted, with red herrings that added nothing to the momentum of the narrative.

The women were ... pretty, which is always a nice touch.

Johnny Depp was ... better than he has been in a long while.

Overall .... despite the problems with story and pacing, I was entertained in the "big" way I like to be by a blockbuster.

654/1000

 

[George_W_K]

I haven't seen this yet, but I wonder if there's a chance there'll be an extended cut that fleshes things out more since a lot of comments I'm hearing say there's just too much happening without a lot of meat.

Steve, best rating scale!

 

[Jake Lipson]

I honestly don't think an extended cut would do it any favors. Adding more to a film where there's already too much going on isn't going to solve its problems.

 

[TJPC]

I don't understand why you wrote them a letter being that you appear to be up to speed on a lot of 3D stuff.

The news of the demise of 3D at IMAX was over a year ago.

One of many articles about it:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/is-golden-age-3d-officially-1025843

This was not true in Canada. The only major 3D films not shown in IMAX 3D were the ones that could not find an available IMAX screen.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Saw this at 12:30 pm today at our imax. Might have been 30 people in the theater. I did not like it at all. It seemed like one would need a Harry Potter doctorate to follow it. Jumping here and there plot wise and much of the dialogue was hard to understand.

How is this doing BO-wise/

 

[Malcolm R]

Currently on pace for a $60m-ish weekend, which is a bit below expectations of a higher 60's debut, but most films seem to be underperforming early expectations this weekend. People must be starting to travel and prepare for Thanksgiving rather than going to the theater.

 

[Sam Favate]

Took the kids today. The theater was only moderately full. I was surprised to see so many seats available online at about 10 am for a 2 pm show.

I thought the plot was very complicated. There were so many characters I felt like I was watching Game of Thrones but without the many episodes of background.

The kids loved it. I thought it was okay once it got going but it dragged quite a bit. I’m not very invested in the HP/FB franchise so my opinion isn’t as developed as many bigger fans. I’m a bit surprised the film isn’t performing as well as expected but this movie doesn’t scream “crowd-pleaser” to me.

EDIT: Huge international opening: More than $250 million worldwide. US/Canada might have fallen short but the rest of the world made up for it.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I thought the plot was very complicated. There were so many characters I felt like I was watching Game of Thrones but without the many episodes of background.

I’m a bit surprised the film isn’t performing as well as expected but this movie doesn’t scream “crowd-pleaser” to me.

It's clearly designed for the pre-existing fans of the franchise who already know this world intimately, of which I am one, as opposed to a general audiences who are more casually interested. And even though I am a hardcore fan, I agree with you it was way too complicated. Like I said in my post from earlier this week, JKR had enough plot to fill one of her 800-page novels...but she was writing a screenplay, and still tried to stuff everything into a two-hour-15-minute film.

WB and JKR can make a movie for hardcore fans if you want, but that if you want, but they're making a bet that the pre-existing fans will continue to show up. The problem is that things in it contradict established canon in the Harry Potter books which the fans love. So, it's a bit strange to cater specifically to the hardcore fans but ALSO simultaneously retroactively mess with the thing that made them fans in the first place.

 

[Mark-P]

As plots go, I found it rather uncomplicated, so I don’t get why people are finding it so complex. I guess some people don’t want to have to actually pay attention when watching a film. Now as to the contradictions to established canon, I think the only reason Rowling did this was because she’s letting film canon diverge from book canon. I believe the contradictions in this movie are only things that were established in the books, not in earlier films.