Monthly Archives: November 2016

Movie Reviews

Movie Review – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Fanstastic Beasts PosterThem

Directed by David Yates

Starring Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Colin Farrell, and wow, that really was Ron Perlman.

Backstory

Because Harry Potter made ALL the money, you just knew that Warner Brothers wasn’t going to let the franchise die once they’d finished adapting all the books.  So they sat down with JK Rowling to come up with a spinoff.  The end result?  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  Casually mentioned in the Harry Potter books as the premiere textbook on magical animals, Fantastic Beasts will follow the adventures of its author, Newt Scamander, as he travels the world documenting said fantastic beasts.  And now here we are, the first of this proposed five film franchise is in theatres.  All I know is, here, finally, is a Harry Potter film where my Harry Potter-lovin’ friends can’t give me heck for not having read the books first.

Plot

New York City.  The 1920s.  Newt Scamander arrives with a magic suitcase full of his fantastic beasts.  But, a mix-up on a street with muggle (or, as Americans call them, no-majs)named Jacob Kowalsky sees some of his beasts accidentally released.  Before long, Newt and Jacob are teaming up with a disgraced Auror named Tina Goldstein and her telepathic sister Queenie to track them down.  But, there’s doin’s a transpirin’, as dark forces seek to tear down the boundaries between the Wizarding World and the No-Maj world and conquer the No-Majs.  Scamander’s escaped beasts present the perfect opportunity to expose the Wizarding World…and Scamander, the perfect patsy.  Can Scamander and his newfound allies round up the beasts and clear his name?

What I Liked

When my friends tell me about Harry Potter, I tell them, “I wanna see the Men in Black of the wizarding world…those who are sent in to cover things up when wizard affairs start infringing too much on the muggle world,” and my friends are like, “Dude!  Those exist in the books!  They’re called Aurors!”  So it’s nice to see the Aurors and who they are and what they do.  There’s lots of cute magical creatures conjured up through CGI.  And we do get some intriguing new characters.  I liked Queenie.  After watching the movies, I said before how enamored I was of Luna Lovegood and how whimsically odd she was.  Queenie borders on an adult Luna.

What I Didn’t Like

Sadly, our hero, Newt Scamander, isn’t one of those intriguing new characters.  I like that he’s kind of shy and timid, but that gives us little opportunity to get to know him.

Final Verdict

A very fine franchise starter.  It was fun.

3 Nibs

Movie Reviews

Movie Review – Doctor Strange

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Doctor StrangeDoctor Strange Poster

Directed by Scott Derrickson

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Mads Mikkelsen, and Tilda Swinton.

Backstory

Wow.  Marvel Studios.  They just keep plugging along.  For a guy who loves superhero films, we currently live in a golden age, so of course the question becomes, what new can we bring to the formula?  As many have pointed out, we really haven’t tackled any magic-based heroes yet.  Granted, Thor comes across as magic, but they’ve always written that off as “science so advanced it appears to be magic.”  So it was time to start bringing in magic.  And in Marvel Comics, the first and last name in magic-based heroes is Doctor Strange.

Plot

Doctor Stephen Strange is a highly gifted neurosurgeon, and his skill has made him cocky and arrogant.  Until, one fateful night, and he’s in a car accident.  Extensive nerve damage robs him of the steady hands a surgeon needs, and he begins searching for a cure to regain full use of his hands.  His search eventually leads him to Tibet, and the hidden city of Kamar-Taj.  But there, he finds more than a cure.  The Ancient One opens Strange’s mind to the concept of other worlds and dimensions, and soon, Strange is studying the mystic arts.  But, there is evil afoot.  Kaecilius, a former disciple of the Ancient One, as stolen some ancient texts, and seeks to summon forth the demon Dormamu to bring about the end of the world.  Will Doctor Strange be able to master the mystic arts to join fellow disciples Baron Mordo and Wong in the battle against Kaecilius and Dormamu?

What I Liked

There’s a lot of good in this movie.  I like Cumberbatch, and he makes a great Strange, bring that same “smartest guy in the room” vibe that Cumberbatch brings to a lot of his roles.  I like the character arc they give to Baron Mordo.  In the comics, he is Doctor Strange’s arch-enemy, so I like that he starts as a friend and ally to Strange, and this becomes very much Mordo’s origin story, too.  And visually, this film is dazzling.  The animators had a hell of a time depicting the other realms.  Visually, this is the most striking film that Marvel has done.

What I Didn’t Like

It’s kind of Marvel’s curse that the villains aren’t as memorable as the heroes, and we barely get a chance to know Kaecilius and his motivations.  And yeah, there’s a formula in place for superhero films now, and it follows the formula pretty closely.

Final Verdict

Enough new twists on the superhero formula to give us another solid outing from Marvel Studios

3 Nibs