For a movie, apathy is often even worse than active dislike. A movie that is bad is often at least still talked about, even as mockery (for example Morbius) but films that no one seems to care about just fade into obscurity.
Weirdly enough, I reckon the film would be doing a lot better if Depp had kept the part just because he coincidentally happens to be in the news right now. You'd probably have a lot of people watch just for him. (rightly or wrongly)
"These 'no-nonsense' solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel."Honestly, fading into obscurity seems to be this series' fate.
If only they just kept it to one film. Harry Potter just isn't the franchise that can be an MCU style franchise Warner Brothers want it to be. It was finished in book 7, and trying to make it a "wizarding world" will just invite more mockery and controversy since J.K refuses to learn about the non-UK parts of the world and refuses to let anyone else write in this series.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"The sad irony is this easily could have been an expanded cinematic universe type of deal if Warner had just done the smart things and made different franchises for different characters.
Just make Newt the protagonist of Fantastic Beasts, and turn those films into a anthology series of Newt traveling to different part of the world to discover new magical creatures and get into fantastic adventures each film. Then the Dumbledore vs. Grindelwald prequel can be centered around them wholly. You could even have yearly HP verse films by alternating between Newt's whimsical adventures and Grindelwald's gritty quest for dominance and HP fans would care because they'd get a yearly potter fix with increasingly more looks into the setting.
Trying to mix these 2 fundamentally different plot into the same set of films was always going to be the issue, and no one who could bothered to understand that until it was too late.
Or what would have happened if OGMCU!Thor merged with the Guardians without Ragnarok happening inbetween.
I think part of the flaw to expanding with the Wizarding World, not only with JK's refusal to do research and all other problems mentioned above, is that the world building is only so-so.
ALL of the world building is based in the UK. Period. And it's based around Harry. And we're in an age of "The Franchise" where everything needs fanservice and recognizable elements no matter what. Some people bitched that Hogwarts wasn't in Fantastic Beasts even when it was illogical to include it, so now we have Hogwarts in the sequels.
You could pitch something wholly original; a film set in Africa as British Explorers come in to dig for fantastic artifacts and a bunch of local wizards try to protect their culture and artifacts using magic without breaking the Masquerade. Like, that could be a cool interesting premise.
And... some CEO and exec would bitch that it isn't "Harry Potter" enough. And then you get "Script Suggestion" post-it notes where now the story involves a Hogwarts Student discovering King Tut or something... :/
I disagree. Not every actor in this franchise has brought their A-game (Johnny Depp and Ezra Miller in particular), but by and large the cast is not the problem.
Jude Law, Dan Fogler and Alison Sudol are fantastic in all their appearances, despite the moronic and possibly offensive things Rowling did with Sudol's character in Crimes of Grindelwald. Mads Mikkelsen is amazing as Grindelwald too. (The opening scene in the tea shop with him and Dumbledore is possibly the best part of this entire film franchise.) And as much as Newt himself became a bit player in what's supposedly his own story, I still think he's a compelling character. He succeeds because he's kinder and more empathic than the bad guys. It never comes down to force or bullshit rules-lawyering like in some of the later Potter books. In a way, Newt is the character we thought Harry would become prior to Order of the Phoenix.
There's one really great line in Crimes that defines Newt as a character: "You never met a monster you couldn't love." There's plenty to work with there. Newt deserved better.
Edited by ThriceCharming on Apr 22nd 2022 at 8:20:10 AM
So was there a reason why Tina was barely in the film? Actually now that I think about it Tina was also not as frequent in the previous film.
Yeah, outside of Depp everyone played their role well. Redmayne really played Newt's awkwardness.
Edited by Ookamikun on Apr 22nd 2022 at 10:58:44 PM
While I haven't seen the movie and I'm just reading the posts here and social media, Jacob being chosen as "The Kindest of Kindest Hearts" award or whatever wouldn't work... because it would then require changes to the setting that don't add up to the OG series. If Jacob being chosen like that is supposed to make the wizarding community rethink their prejudice against muggles... that doesn't work if we know for a fact they don't end up doing that.
Kinda hilarious. In 2011, Deathly Hallows Part 2 crushed Winnie the Pooh, a movie about anthropomorphic animals, at the box office. Now the Harry Potter brand is losing to a movie about anthropomorphic animals at the box office.
"You see, I had to trap Sonic in the hell dimension cause he disrespected gamers."
Yeah, Harry Potter, I think, has been the casualty of the current Age of Popcultural Iconoclasm that has hit me the hardest. It was invincible at its peak; I don't think I've seen a fanbase that powerful since. The MCU's close I guess but even it's not as utterly omnipresent as HP was.
I miss the internet and fandom as they were in the aughts in general, too.
I mean at least that movie had it's moments, and had some interesting hooks.
This series sounds like it's going nowhere.
Plus I was sort of referring to Blizzard's decline as a company. Far more messier and disgusting than Rowling, not to let the latter off the hook.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"Do you think that after the mild reception, the franchise will continue as it is, the wizarding world will start a new series entirely or focus on other media outside cinema, or will Warner prefer to focus on the main trio once more in an attempt to invoke nostalgia from the now adult audience (not necessarily a cursed child adaptation)?
oh hey how are you doing?

What even is there to say? At least Crimes of Grindelwald had some absurdly bad moments to discuss.
Is Credence even a compelling character? Like he was basically a nothing character for 2 movies.
The romances in the movies are pretty toxic, and even has borderline sexual assault, with Queenie and Jacob.
The cast overall just aren't compelling. Even the Dumbledore and Grindelwald dynamic isn't getting much traction online.
"The Black Rage makes us strong, because we must resist its temptations every day of our lives or be forever damned!"