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Fantastic Beasts movies


Fizzzzle

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I just watched all three of them after doing a re-read of the Harry Potter books over the last week or so.

 

I had seen the first two, but only on airplanes when I was half asleep. The first one is honestly really good. Crimes of Grindelwald and Secrets of Dumbledore are both kind of train wrecks that leave more questions open than answered. Now that it looks like the series is dead in the water, what do you think?

 

Even while I recognized that the second and third movies were kind of shit, I couldn't help but still have fun watching them. The world of Harry Potter is simply a blast to live in while you're watching.

 

I think the studios fall into the same trap as Star Wars, and they feel the need to make the story bigger than it has to be. Every story has to be about the life and death of the soul of the planet. The reason the first movie works so well is that it kind of detaches itself from any kind of grand narrative, for the most part. The next two movies basically fall victim to feature creep because EVERY plotline has to somehow tie into every other plotline from the entire franchise. It can't just be its own thing.

 

It makes me wonder about the Jon Snow spin off series for Game of Thrones, honestly. If they can just make the series its own entity, like it's just Jon Snow traveling the world and getting into hijinks, it could be really good. My instinct tells me it's going to fall into the same trap. Another struggle for the survival of humanity ends up feeling redundant and forced.

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I haven't seen these movies (though I'm a fan of Harry Potter, both the books and movies) but I just wanted to say I think I nevertheless understand what you mean with this:

 

2 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

Even while I recognized that the second and third movies were kind of shit, I couldn't help but still have fun watching them. The world of Harry Potter is simply a blast to live in while you're watching.

 

because this is more or less how I feel about the Hobbit movies. As standalone movies they're mediocre at best, but I'm such a fan of the whole universe that even a mediocre telling of a story in that universe is awesome, to me. :) 

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First - the Hobbit movies are way better than the Fantastic Beasts movies because Peter Jackson (and his co-writers) is a better writer/director than J.K. Rowling the screenwriter and director David Yates, there's just no comparison. Then again, I'm a big LOTR fan and don't really care one way or the other about Harry Potter, even having read the books and seen the movies. My wife is a super fan though.

 

That being said, I've seen the first two Fantastic Beasts movies (I'm sure thanks to my wife I'll see the third soon enough) but we don't like them. The first one was okay enough, but the second one was just a bunch of shit at the screen. I've heard the third is even worse. I've never liked Rowling's writing as well. Just not good movies, and not worth re-assessing like with the Hobbit films. Then again, my wife and brother (both huge Potter fans, unlike me) didn't like The Cursed Child either so maybe it's all bad since the end of the books (though I thought the books weren't great from the start).

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7 hours ago, thewhyteboar said:

The biggest mistake the first one made was ditching Colin Ferrell for Johnny Depp. Never saw the others.

They made up for it somewhat by replacing Depp with Mads Mikkelsen for #3, but that wasn’t enough to get me tune in after being disappointed by the first two. 

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