Saw the flick Thursday night, but I just got internet back.

I like how Magic has been expanded and has such... personality in this movie. Someone mentioned before that this is the way Magic should feel among competent Wizards and Witches - they should live and breath it versus just sprinkling it over mundane tasks.

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And then there was Grindelwald. Truthfully, Depp was barely in the movie at all, so I'll reserve judgment on him for a later movie. I thought he was closer to his Sweeney/Cry-Baby!Crazy rather than CaptainJack!Crazy, and I liked how he read his lines in an almost reptilian hiss. Also, Rowling and her Hitler parallels (as Hitler was also briefly imprisoned in the 20's before rising to power), woof.

Am I crazy, or did a bunch of older fanon nonsense (natural legilimency, trunks that contain mansions, etc) suddenly become Canon? I mean, this is stuff Rowling herself wrote and ok'ed, right?

 

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Trunks with expanded space inside has been canon since GoF - that's why they're everywhere in fanon.

That said, this is a case not a trunk XD

Also, natural legilimency was also already canon of a sort - Tom Riddle had the ability to tell when people were lying.

 

Just got back from watching the film. Absolutely loved it, definitely would put it as a 5/5 rating from me. I expected it to be good, but it completely blew me out of the water. Felt like I was watching one of the books as opposed to the Harry Potter films if that makes any sense.

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Now onto some brief spoiler-filled thoughts:

First, I actually didn’t mind Depp small cameo as Grindelwald. In fact, I agree with AlbusPHolmes and Redsayn’s view on Depp’s role. As I really loved Colin Farell in the movie, as long as Depp tries to mostly follow how he ‘portrayed’ the character of Grindelwald/Graves, then he should be fine. I didn’t see anything wrong though with what we saw of Grindelwald in that last scene, nor did I really think he was acting like Jack Sparrow. If he reminded me of any of his past characters, it was more Sweeney Todd.

Second, is Tina now temporarily the Master of the Elder Wand? I'm honestly not sure. Maybe it’s because the books were never clear when Grindelwald got the Elder Wand and because the first Deathly Hallows film showed the younger Grindelwald actor stealing the wand, so therefore I always assumed it was a young Grindelwald who stole it in general. He clearly isn’t using the wand, but of course I don’t think it’d make sense if he did anyways, as all it’d take is for one person watching the film to look at his wand to spoil the twist. Perhaps he’s using his real original wand or Graves wand if he’s impersonating him. Or maybe he hasn’t gotten it yet, who knows.

Third, a lot of people were theorizing this, but I'm pretty certain Ariana had to have been an Obscurus. It just fits well with both this film and the Albus/Gellert/Ariana backstory in general. Plus the Dumbledore's might have hid the fact, so people didn't know. After all, no one really knew about Ariana even a hundred years after her death until Dumbledore died, so it's not like it couldn't have been hidden.

Fourth and final thought; I’m actually somewhat disappointed we never saw Illvermony. All those Pottermore posts JK Rowling did a few months back seemed like it was building up a possible appearance by the school and instead it just ended up being a small throwaway line/conversation.

Anyways, I'm very excited for the sequel. Since the five films are suppose to take place during the course of nineteen years, I really hope we get to see a young Tom Riddle show up in one of them, even if it's only in a small role.

 

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... When Grindelwald figures that out, she is so dead. Either her or Newt, seeing as how it was him who restrained him. Maybe that could even be the reason why Dumbledore attacks him- to avenge or save his pupil, or his pupil's wife? That's only a wild guess, but this point warrants discussion.

 

Just saw it this morning. I went in with no expectations, and was pleasantly surprised. After SW7 last year, I was ready to be disappointed by a new addition to a beloved franchise, but Fantastic Beasts is a positive addition to the HP universe.

There are some problems, but I rate it a 4/5.

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Colin Ferrell was great in this movie, especially in his 'For Us or Them' speech at the end. You feel that Grindelwald actually meant it. I'm not sure about the decision to have Graves=Grindelwald. They might have introduced Grindelwald to soon, as the conflict will stretch five movies.

As for Depp... I guess we will see how that turns out. Although that bad make-up and Hitler-mustache need to go in the next movie. I always pictured Grindelwald as someone handsome and charismatic.

I hope that JKR doesn't have Grindelwald basically be a magic Nazi. Although the setting makes for an obvious parallel, Voldemort and the Death Eaters were in essence magic nazi's, we don't need to do it twice.

The movie's pacing feels very different from an HP movie. Being outside a school setting allows for more freedom and faster pace. Overall I'm tentatively hopeful for the next four movies.

 

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Regarding the Elder Wand, remember it is defeat not specifically disarmament that transfers mastery. It was Newt who overcame Grindelwald, Tina just disarmed him afterwards. So if Grindelwald did have mastery of the Elder Wand already, then Newt would be the new master, not Tina.

 

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I may misremember, but doesn't the fact that he didn't use the Elder Wand at the time still make him the master of it, even if he lost a duel (against several opponents)?

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I've always thought Grindelwald symbolized Josef Stalin and the USSR. E.g. the slogan for the revolution was "for the greater good" that makes me associate to communism. Now there is a reason it's called national socialism, but I think that the Voldemort was to be the wizardingworld's equivalent to the Third Reich and it doesn't make room for the case against communism.

 

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Not really. Draco was Master of the Elder Wand in Deathly Hallows, but lost Mastery of the Wand to Harry, even though he didn't possess the wand at that time.

Also, there is some interesting news on the sequel to Fantastic Beasts that was released earlier today. Apparently the film won't be set entirely in Paris, as some of the film will be set in the U.K., and presumably, Hogwarts.
https://www.cinemablend.com/news/1587480/fantastic-beasts-2-wont-be-set-entirely-in-paris

In addition to that is another piece of news released the other day, that I will have to put in the spoiler section:

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Basically the character Leda Lestrange, who's mentioned in the film as a person from Newt's past, will be showing up in the sequel according to David Yates.

https://www.bustle.com/articles/194563-who-is-leda-lestrange-fantastic-beasts-is-only-the-start-for-the-new-character-says-director

 

I too just got back from watching it. I liked it a lot, though there was one thing I thought was silly.

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I didn't particularly like how useless Tina was. She was supposed to be a former Auror that got demoted, no? Really annoying how she had to play the damsel in distress. Hell, her sister was braver than her/broke the nomagic dude out/smuggled them out of the Ministry.

I liked the clock in the MoM, as well as the overall American wizard world.

 

Actually there's another thing I just thought of that brings up a good and very interesting point:

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Basically if Grindelwald is in fact impersonating Graves and Graves is not in fact a alias, which the more I think of in, the more I'm inclined to believe, especially in light of the fact Pottermore already states that Graves is a descendant of one of the founders of the MACUSA, then most likely that means he didn't just fight a group of thirty Auror's, he did it with another persons wand to boot.

I'm not going to lie, that is pretty impressive, especially as it's very likely the wand wasn't even compatible for him.

 

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If I was a 17-year-old Dumbledore, I'd swallow any kind of crazy this boy spread on me, so long as it was on me he was doing the spreading.

 

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Not sure if it was already pointed out by anyone, but thought the name Percival Graves was a pretty neat foreshadowing of his true identity. Percival was a Knight of the Round Table who searched for the Holy Grail, a holy object, or rather a Hallow. Then Graves obviously has connotations with Death. Therefore Percival Graves (Grindelwald) was on a quest for the Deathly Hallows.

 

I went in with low expectations and came out loving it, even with the shoehorned romance and the annoying canon breakers.

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Obscurials explode out of repressed wizarding children? I can't even, JKR. I. Can't. Even.

What I enjoyed most was getting new visuals for all the creatures. Niffler is da real MVP.

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Beating a nitpicky dead horse, but I think the only true low point of the movie was the Grindelwald reveal. Too obvious and they tried WAY too hard to make Depp look "villain-y" with the bleached skin and it just came off as comical. Normal looking Depp with blond hair and a neat blond goatee doing his best 9th Gate maniacal glare would have been more than sufficient. In fact, it would have been preferable. I like my Grindelwalds to be suave and menacing.

Even though I really liked it overall, I'm not sure I particularly want or need a sequel. If they do decide to hash out Dumbledore vs Grindelwald, it's going to be underwhelming as fuck. Just leave it to our imaginations, please. Although if the occupancy at my theater complex, a grand total of 3 people at a 10:30 Saturday night showing, is anything to go by, they may decide to take the hatchet to any planned sequels.

 

Might just be your area mate, the showing I went to (1910 on Friday) was 100% occupancy.

 

So, after reading the Script book version of the 'fight', I can confirm that Grindelwald wasn't disarmed- after Newt's rope spell, (a noticeable similarity between him and Dumbledore in his fight with Voldemort) Grindelwald tried to fight it of and ended up dropping his wand.
Therefore, what we have is a Grindelwald without the Elder Wand's full power knowing who does. He would do anything to regain mastery; even going to France to hunt down a Magizoologist
Also, I just found this online. Just skip to 1:03 and imagine Grindelwald doing some Magic shit. :0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBOMpfxsUpk

 

Theres alot of things I can say about this movie, some great, some bad (I personally rate it 7.5/10), but the only thing I believe is needed is this:

 

Maybe... but normally that theater is packed like a sardine can, and its first weekend lines for the previous Potter movies were 100 people long 30 mins before any given show started. Typical suburbs Regal megaplex.

To be fair, there is a newer, slightly fancier Cinemark multiplex a dozen miles away, and there were showtimes at both locations every hour, so maybe people were siphoned off or something?

 

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Grindelwald was badass... thought it was gonna end with him killing the president for a second

The Dumbledore reference was cool

I'm guessing Ariana was an obscurical and that's how Grindelwald knew about theml

Wonder what happened to the Lestrange Newt knows...

The best character was Jacob

Bit annoyed at how easy Grindelwald got took down, Queenies powers seemed a bit over the top…

That DH necklace…

Solid 8/10

 

Just got back. Really enjoyed it - there were a few weak moments, and some obvious CGI, but on the whole really good fun. Basically everything I wanted from it.

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Random thoughts to follow:
Totally agree on Ariana being some sort of Obscurus - it would explain why she was locked up if she did that sort of thing when she was stressed out. I thought they handled that plot strand pretty well on the whole; I was pretty sure it was going to be Credence rather than the girl, because he's got a character poster, but I was kept guessing right up until the reveal.
Graves was brilliant. It's a shame we (probably) won't be getting Farrell back in future films, but hey ho. I'd been avoiding most of the publicity, and hadn't checked this thread for a week or so, so I missed the speculation about him being Grindlewald. I spent most of the film assuming he was a follower, because they weren't subtle about that, but then it suddenly occurred to me that he might be in disguise about five minutes before the reveal. Reserving judgement on Depp until we have more to go on, although I will say that he obviously filmed his cameo while he was doing 'Mordecai', and didn't have time to change his make up.



Loved the magic. Properly wonderful, as it should be.

I thought the whole strand with No-Maj's finding out about magic was handled badly even before the thunderbird neuralizer - it just seemed to be forgotten about for large stretches of the film, and then didn't mean anything in the end anyway. Bit of a damp squib, if you'll excuse the expression. Although the venom was experimental...maybe it'll wear off for a future film?