Thursday, July 21, 2022

Rough Beasts

I don't know why we bothered watching Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022). We kind of liked the first one, can't remember a thing about the second. I guess it's because my favorite part was Dan Fogler and the love of his life, Queenie (Alice Sudol), and I heard they played a major part in the new one.

Let's see, it starts with Mads Mikkelson as Grindlewald meeting with Jude Law as Dumbledore meeting. Although the one is evil and the other good, they are clearly in love, and create a magical set of amulets that will prevent them from using magic against each other. 

Newt (Eddie Redmayne) gets involved in China, where he witnesses the birth of a Qilin (which I guess is a Kirin in Japanese?). This most innocent and holy animal is killed by Grindlewald's faction, and the calf is stolen. But Newt gets it's twin.

There's a lot of international stuff, including a lot of action in Berlin, just pre-war. Grindlewald has corrupted the International Wizard's Union and gets himself elected Head Wizard. In the background, he is corrupting the Qilin by bathing in blood and stuff. This zombie Qilin will vouch for him as being good.

Dumbledore is more or less sidelined, so he gets a team together including Redmayne and Fogler to fight the baddies. Fogler has been moping around his bakery missing his girl, but when he catches up to her, he gets snubbed. Turns out she has been turned by Mikkelson. 

So Fogler gets a bit to do, but not much. He also doesn't seem as perfectly period as I thought. Sudol as Queenie doesn't get to do much, and her heel-turn is kind of unexplained. That was disappointing. Also, the animal cruelty is a bit hard to take. Not to mention the Nazi stuff that is presumably being ignored in the background.

Or maybe it was actually referenced. I guess I wasn't paying much attention. I'm not sure we're going to bother with the next one. 

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