12-16-2018, 10:40 AM
The Crimes of Grindelwald
If you're not into the Wizarding World (and none of you here are) avoid this. It won't make a lick of sense. There were points where I was like 'wait, who is that again?' even, and I know the WW pretty well as it was a major fantasy in my daughter's upbringing. So what can be said for you DOOMuggles? This prequel franchise gets even darker. The coming-of-age humor is completely gone. There's just some sober asides from Jacob (the no-mag) and Flamel (a major easter egg spoiler but y'all won't get it and he was in one of the trailers). Depp eats up scenery and really works his white-iris contact lens. It's a good part for him. And his totalitarian recruitment speech actually makes a lot of sense, strangely relevant in our present teetering hegemonic age. I enjoyed seeing the Paris ministry of magic, and the return to Hogwarts was delightful. The shout outs to the LeStrange lineage was awesome, but I yearned for my beloved Bellatrix.
The Asian offering was interesting. There's a Kappa (which I didn't even recognize until they called it so) and a Zouwu. The Zouwu is like a dragon-lion-peacock, an obscure mythological beast from China. I had to look it up, despite my familiarity with Chinese mythology, and was relieved to hear that most of China had to look it up too. It's very obscure. Then there's Claudia Kim, the Korean starlet from Age of Ultron (I didn't remember her from that - had to look that up too). She was very J.K., a good twist that redeems one of the most villainous characters from the original series, Nagini.
It was fun to see with my family. Tara was conflicted after seeing it because it brought up so many issues. Stacy was amused (she's a huge fan of Depp). I wasn't overly into it until the first major reveal, which was very Rowling, complex and played your assumptions well. Like with any of these prequels, it's the easter eggs and shout outs to the original that really sell it. Those are the best scenes.
Greg, you'll hate this. Don't even bother.
If you're not into the Wizarding World (and none of you here are) avoid this. It won't make a lick of sense. There were points where I was like 'wait, who is that again?' even, and I know the WW pretty well as it was a major fantasy in my daughter's upbringing. So what can be said for you DOOMuggles? This prequel franchise gets even darker. The coming-of-age humor is completely gone. There's just some sober asides from Jacob (the no-mag) and Flamel (a major easter egg spoiler but y'all won't get it and he was in one of the trailers). Depp eats up scenery and really works his white-iris contact lens. It's a good part for him. And his totalitarian recruitment speech actually makes a lot of sense, strangely relevant in our present teetering hegemonic age. I enjoyed seeing the Paris ministry of magic, and the return to Hogwarts was delightful. The shout outs to the LeStrange lineage was awesome, but I yearned for my beloved Bellatrix.
The Asian offering was interesting. There's a Kappa (which I didn't even recognize until they called it so) and a Zouwu. The Zouwu is like a dragon-lion-peacock, an obscure mythological beast from China. I had to look it up, despite my familiarity with Chinese mythology, and was relieved to hear that most of China had to look it up too. It's very obscure. Then there's Claudia Kim, the Korean starlet from Age of Ultron (I didn't remember her from that - had to look that up too). She was very J.K., a good twist that redeems one of the most villainous characters from the original series, Nagini.
It was fun to see with my family. Tara was conflicted after seeing it because it brought up so many issues. Stacy was amused (she's a huge fan of Depp). I wasn't overly into it until the first major reveal, which was very Rowling, complex and played your assumptions well. Like with any of these prequels, it's the easter eggs and shout outs to the original that really sell it. Those are the best scenes.
Greg, you'll hate this. Don't even bother.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse