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shallownessI got to see the film during the week. Thumbs up. Not my favourite film of the year, but lots of fun with enough to chew on.
I do own the book of the same title, although unlike Certain People, I never thought ‘oh, I can’t wait for the film.’ A not-very-nice part of me wonders if Kloves is writing the novelisation, if there is such a thing. However, here it is, and I’ve been quite looking forward to it without too many expectations – I like Redmayne and, obviously, the Wizarding World that Rowling has created, but I was more excited about Arrival.
The marketing made me snicker, ‘Before Harry Potter…’ Um, no. I know what they’re getting at and the 1920s setting was a gift to production design, but this is a spin-off to the world Rowling created and doesn’t want to give up – I haven’t seen/read The Cursed Child – but after this, I’m okay with Rowling doing so as a screenwriter, because obviously my permission matters. It was fun, slightly more grown-up, but with interesting, relevant themes. Oh, perhaps it was obvious that a lot has happened in the world since the film was made, but it’s also cushioned by being fantasy and set in the past. It’s a good mix of serious stuff and romp with Newt Scamander (Dr Doolittle meets Dr Who?) trying to find the magical beasts he’s let loose on a ‘non-maj’ New York, just as the wizards are trying to hide the mysterious dark cloud of death thing that has been unleashed across the city, terrified it’ll reveal their existence to the ‘others’, personified at their worst by Samantha Morton’s creepy neo-Salemist campaigner, railing against witch-craft, and lead to war. Oh, and Gellert Grindelwald escaped from Europe and nobody quite knows where he is. But Newt is mainly focused on his conservationist mission.
And his beasts are magical, like offish versions of the creatures we’re familiar with. I vaguely rememberd Nifflers and the Bowtruckle, and I lifted Mooncalves for a fic earlier in the year. The featured ones have characters and they all interact with ‘Mummy’, and affect the plot. When we step into Scamander’s suitcase, a genie bottle of a, well, zoo, it’s wonderous. Having said that, maybe there were a little too many of them, because not one made a huge, Gizmo-like, impression on me.
Redmayne is at the heart of it all. And that’s another British actor with a franchise. He doesdn’t even have to affect an accent. Newt is clearly not at home in New York (if there isn’t an ‘Englishman in New York’ fanvid made, I shall be most disappointed). I spent a lot of time thinking he was dangerously irresponsible (and that conservationism is a kind of fanaticism Rowling approves of??) but then it turns out that that’s unfair. Through his friendship with Jacob (and even the growing alliance with Tina and Queenie) we come to realise that he is aware that he’s better with animals than humans, wishes it weren’t entirely so, and is not out to cause harm. (Though he manages to cause a little chaos). Redmayne, who felt like a natural fit, chose to play the part mostly in profile, I presume not just because it was flattering but either to show he was concentrating on whatever beastie he was chasing/tending to or that he found it difficult to interact with humans.
Oh, the other humans. His chums (and it was a golden quartet, not trio! Well, really an alpha couple and a beta couple) include Jacob Kowalski who fatefully had a case just enough like Newt’s; disgraced Auror Tina, who reminded me a little of Tonks, because of the determined Auror thing; and her Super Legilmens sister Queenie, who is a bit like Luna mixed with Sugar from ‘Some Like it Hot’ and devastating. (And although there’s something good-natured and sweet about the relationship that develops between her and Kowalski, as long as you don’t think too much about how she only kissed him as his memory of her was being wiped, I am so tired of the pretty girl falls for schlubby guy trope because he’s just so very nice, even if it was played sincerely here. Gender flip it a bit more…) All three actors were new to me, but all made positive impressions.
Tina (I don’t think they called her Porpentina in the film) is not supposed to do serious Auror business any more for plot-important reasons - the revelation of which was a bit clunky? I didn’t feel that her emotional connection to the final encounter with Credence was entirely earned. But she can’t help herself, notices Newt as he crashes around a Muggle bank trying to find a Niffler and fails to oblivate Jacob as he should. The big bosses - Madam President I Don’t Remember Your Name, but Carmen Ejogo sure has a majestic presence, and Mr Graves (Colin Farrell) whom we soon realise is up to his own business, which involves having a pseudo-incestuous vibe to clandestine encounters with a troubled boy - pooh-pooh her. They’re worried about the no-good thing that’s threatening people and their secrecy. So, Tina ends up trying to do the right thing, as far as she’s concerned, because she’s an Auror at heart, and for the forces of law, but Newt is trying to do the right thing by his lights, which is find and protect his magical beasts. By the time Tina and Newt realise the gravity of what’s facing the city, nearly get killed and go on the run, they realise he can help to save the city by being a good magizoologist and she by being an Auror who tempers justice with kindness.
I liked their relationship and that the film, knowing there’ll be sequels, didn’t force it. Face touching felt about right after mutual suspicion to trust and was quite a lot for a repressed English wizard in the 1920s, and if the story didn’t allow for trains (Rowling’s great romantic signifier) how’s about liners? (Never mind that I always wondered why Newt couldn’t travel by some magical means like a Portkey!)
The rest of the cast was a mix of star names (Morton is fabulously steely and creepy, Ezra Miller probably really needs The Flash to happen to avoid being typecast, but is very effective, and there’s Jon Voight too) and Brits playing Americans in smaller roles (did I see Gemma Jones in the crowd, or am I imagining things?) There are references to Dumbledore, Grindelwald, obviously, and the Lestranges, but because it’s not in the UK, although it was a part of the extended universe, the film carved out its own niche.
When I saw the trailer, I unreasonably felt that it’d be nice if there were some children in the film, because this all came about from a children’s book. I say unreasonably, because I really welcomed the themes of how to deal with a fearful people and avoid war, how to co-exist, how to use power responsibly, how to treat animals and the less powerful. Well, there were children, but more in the Merope vein, as Rowling went all Dickens on nasty reactionary repressive conservatives who don’t like wizards (bring your own metaphor) and whip their children and turn them into haters which can make them self-haters and basically monsters. It’s more palatable than it was in ‘The Casual Vacancy’. Nice misdirect with the children, though.
And there’s the Mr Graves is Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) reveal setting up the sequel. We know Newt and Tina have a date! I’m interested in the mention of Newt’s super-duper older brother. I’d also like one of the sequels to feature the American school the girls went to. (Oh, and it did pass the Bechdel test because of Tina’s job talk.)
I do wonder if they rushed the colour grading work, or whatever it’s called, because sometimes, the contrast from scene to scene or part of a scene to another was a bit jarring. Sometimes, in the frenetic action, I’d miss lines or actions, and I’m sure if I thought about it some more, there’d be other details that would gnaw away at my initial reaction, which was mainly that this was fun. Unencumbered by ‘how will they translate X?’ (and, mostly, child actors, ahem), I look forward to where and when in the Wizarding World this lot take us next. I probably will go and see it again, partly because I expect I’ll be wanting fic of the Newt/Tina, Tina and Queenie (possibly Newt) at school variety.
I do own the book of the same title, although unlike Certain People, I never thought ‘oh, I can’t wait for the film.’ A not-very-nice part of me wonders if Kloves is writing the novelisation, if there is such a thing. However, here it is, and I’ve been quite looking forward to it without too many expectations – I like Redmayne and, obviously, the Wizarding World that Rowling has created, but I was more excited about Arrival.
The marketing made me snicker, ‘Before Harry Potter…’ Um, no. I know what they’re getting at and the 1920s setting was a gift to production design, but this is a spin-off to the world Rowling created and doesn’t want to give up – I haven’t seen/read The Cursed Child – but after this, I’m okay with Rowling doing so as a screenwriter, because obviously my permission matters. It was fun, slightly more grown-up, but with interesting, relevant themes. Oh, perhaps it was obvious that a lot has happened in the world since the film was made, but it’s also cushioned by being fantasy and set in the past. It’s a good mix of serious stuff and romp with Newt Scamander (Dr Doolittle meets Dr Who?) trying to find the magical beasts he’s let loose on a ‘non-maj’ New York, just as the wizards are trying to hide the mysterious dark cloud of death thing that has been unleashed across the city, terrified it’ll reveal their existence to the ‘others’, personified at their worst by Samantha Morton’s creepy neo-Salemist campaigner, railing against witch-craft, and lead to war. Oh, and Gellert Grindelwald escaped from Europe and nobody quite knows where he is. But Newt is mainly focused on his conservationist mission.
And his beasts are magical, like offish versions of the creatures we’re familiar with. I vaguely rememberd Nifflers and the Bowtruckle, and I lifted Mooncalves for a fic earlier in the year. The featured ones have characters and they all interact with ‘Mummy’, and affect the plot. When we step into Scamander’s suitcase, a genie bottle of a, well, zoo, it’s wonderous. Having said that, maybe there were a little too many of them, because not one made a huge, Gizmo-like, impression on me.
Redmayne is at the heart of it all. And that’s another British actor with a franchise. He doesdn’t even have to affect an accent. Newt is clearly not at home in New York (if there isn’t an ‘Englishman in New York’ fanvid made, I shall be most disappointed). I spent a lot of time thinking he was dangerously irresponsible (and that conservationism is a kind of fanaticism Rowling approves of??) but then it turns out that that’s unfair. Through his friendship with Jacob (and even the growing alliance with Tina and Queenie) we come to realise that he is aware that he’s better with animals than humans, wishes it weren’t entirely so, and is not out to cause harm. (Though he manages to cause a little chaos). Redmayne, who felt like a natural fit, chose to play the part mostly in profile, I presume not just because it was flattering but either to show he was concentrating on whatever beastie he was chasing/tending to or that he found it difficult to interact with humans.
Oh, the other humans. His chums (and it was a golden quartet, not trio! Well, really an alpha couple and a beta couple) include Jacob Kowalski who fatefully had a case just enough like Newt’s; disgraced Auror Tina, who reminded me a little of Tonks, because of the determined Auror thing; and her Super Legilmens sister Queenie, who is a bit like Luna mixed with Sugar from ‘Some Like it Hot’ and devastating. (And although there’s something good-natured and sweet about the relationship that develops between her and Kowalski, as long as you don’t think too much about how she only kissed him as his memory of her was being wiped, I am so tired of the pretty girl falls for schlubby guy trope because he’s just so very nice, even if it was played sincerely here. Gender flip it a bit more…) All three actors were new to me, but all made positive impressions.
Tina (I don’t think they called her Porpentina in the film) is not supposed to do serious Auror business any more for plot-important reasons - the revelation of which was a bit clunky? I didn’t feel that her emotional connection to the final encounter with Credence was entirely earned. But she can’t help herself, notices Newt as he crashes around a Muggle bank trying to find a Niffler and fails to oblivate Jacob as he should. The big bosses - Madam President I Don’t Remember Your Name, but Carmen Ejogo sure has a majestic presence, and Mr Graves (Colin Farrell) whom we soon realise is up to his own business, which involves having a pseudo-incestuous vibe to clandestine encounters with a troubled boy - pooh-pooh her. They’re worried about the no-good thing that’s threatening people and their secrecy. So, Tina ends up trying to do the right thing, as far as she’s concerned, because she’s an Auror at heart, and for the forces of law, but Newt is trying to do the right thing by his lights, which is find and protect his magical beasts. By the time Tina and Newt realise the gravity of what’s facing the city, nearly get killed and go on the run, they realise he can help to save the city by being a good magizoologist and she by being an Auror who tempers justice with kindness.
I liked their relationship and that the film, knowing there’ll be sequels, didn’t force it. Face touching felt about right after mutual suspicion to trust and was quite a lot for a repressed English wizard in the 1920s, and if the story didn’t allow for trains (Rowling’s great romantic signifier) how’s about liners? (Never mind that I always wondered why Newt couldn’t travel by some magical means like a Portkey!)
The rest of the cast was a mix of star names (Morton is fabulously steely and creepy, Ezra Miller probably really needs The Flash to happen to avoid being typecast, but is very effective, and there’s Jon Voight too) and Brits playing Americans in smaller roles (did I see Gemma Jones in the crowd, or am I imagining things?) There are references to Dumbledore, Grindelwald, obviously, and the Lestranges, but because it’s not in the UK, although it was a part of the extended universe, the film carved out its own niche.
When I saw the trailer, I unreasonably felt that it’d be nice if there were some children in the film, because this all came about from a children’s book. I say unreasonably, because I really welcomed the themes of how to deal with a fearful people and avoid war, how to co-exist, how to use power responsibly, how to treat animals and the less powerful. Well, there were children, but more in the Merope vein, as Rowling went all Dickens on nasty reactionary repressive conservatives who don’t like wizards (bring your own metaphor) and whip their children and turn them into haters which can make them self-haters and basically monsters. It’s more palatable than it was in ‘The Casual Vacancy’. Nice misdirect with the children, though.
And there’s the Mr Graves is Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) reveal setting up the sequel. We know Newt and Tina have a date! I’m interested in the mention of Newt’s super-duper older brother. I’d also like one of the sequels to feature the American school the girls went to. (Oh, and it did pass the Bechdel test because of Tina’s job talk.)
I do wonder if they rushed the colour grading work, or whatever it’s called, because sometimes, the contrast from scene to scene or part of a scene to another was a bit jarring. Sometimes, in the frenetic action, I’d miss lines or actions, and I’m sure if I thought about it some more, there’d be other details that would gnaw away at my initial reaction, which was mainly that this was fun. Unencumbered by ‘how will they translate X?’ (and, mostly, child actors, ahem), I look forward to where and when in the Wizarding World this lot take us next. I probably will go and see it again, partly because I expect I’ll be wanting fic of the Newt/Tina, Tina and Queenie (possibly Newt) at school variety.
