well, that was a roller-coaster.
Four years of waiting, huh? I reckon it was worth it. I watched the film yesterday and almost had to be wheeled out of the theatre, so I slept on my thoughts and feelings, and decided to get them down in this chapter today c:
Before we kick off- a few things:
- MASSIVE SPOILERS (in case you couldn't tell). I'm gonna be talking about the movie under the assumption that whoever's reading has watched it, so if you haven't watched it... don't read 😃
- My w key is broken and won't go into caps 😔so SORRY IF I'M wRITING IN ALL CAPS AND MY w LOOKS LIKE THIS
- I don't remember everything about the film because I only saw it once and I didn't hear some of the lines... I'm going to try and pick up a screenplay soon so I can re-absorb it all, but apologies for any inaccuracies or bits I missed out.
Anyway, let's get into it :))
- wow Dumbledore really is hot
- I was surprised and delighted at how blunt they made the queer romance apparent. in COG it was all 'I can't move against Grindelwald' this and 'we were closer than brothers' that. In SOD they really just went 'I was in love with you' and that was so liberating!!
And he said it TwICE! It made me happy-dance in the cinema to know that they made it outright canon and stated it, rather than suggest and let the fanbase decipher what it meant.
- They were on a date in the first scene haha
- About Mikkelson's portrayal of Gellert:
I liked it a lot!!! I don't think it was better or worse than Depp's portrayal... it was just different. I like them both. If I had to pick, I prefer Depp's, but I reckon that's only because I'm more familiar with it. He has a wonderful, terrifying way of doing everything in a very calculated, slow manner, and it added a lot to how persuasive and manipulative Grindelwald is.
Mikkelson's Grindelwald was a lot more human. That made him terrifying in a different way, because it was like watching any other person do all the awful things that Grindelwald does. It made it feel a lot more real, and I think the fact that Grindelwald felt more human made the sorts of things he did feel more inhumane, if that makes sense.
I saw an article talking about how Mikkelson's performance was better because it was more believable that Dumbledore fell in love with him rather than the Grindelwald from the first two movies.
I'm gonna go out on a ledge and say that I disagree with that. I get their point, but I think you could also flip the script and say that Fantastic Beasts is about how Albus and Gellert both changed since they were teenagers. By extension, Fantastic Beasts could be about showing how this Gellert wasn't the same man Albus had fallen in love with. Just a thought.
- New creature!!! Qilin!
- Victoria Yeates (who plays Bunty) said that her favourite creature is in SOD, so I'm willing to bet it was the Qilin, and who can blame her??
- Speaking of Bunty, I know we were all a bit cautious of her in COG, especially after her 'perhaps you should take off your shirt' stunt, but I gotta say, I think my opinion of her has changed.
She's obviously smitten with Newt (who can blame her), but she stays within her limits. She doesn't force him into doing anything and keeps to her place as an assistant. I think, at this point, she knows she can never have Newt- and she's crushed about it, but that's okay. Because she still gets to work with him and share his love for beasts and knows that he would trust her with his life. There isn't a lot more saddening, I think, than loving someone, knowing you can't have them, and being right next to them and talking to them every day.
