Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them 5-film series

[TheUlyssesian 2,473]

2 hours ago, SUH said:

First snippets of score!

 

 

 

Neat that they're promoting the film by sending online personalities to the scoring sesions!

 

 

#wbsponsored

[toothless 963]

More music here :

 

 

[toothless 963]

 

[bollemanneke 3,334]

Can't wait for this entire score!

[Bilbo 3,709]

I’m super hyped. I don’t care that there isn’t a Star Wars film this Xmas because I have this! 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,488]

I'm with you, Bil; this looks far better than the first FB film. One for the IMAX, I think.

[Bilbo 3,709]

I think the first FB film will look much better in retrospect. 

 

Its like the 1st chapter of Philosopher’s Stone. There’s so much set up in that chapter and there was so much work she had to do. 

 

I do like the first film though. I really like the quartet. It’s a simple enough story but it’s building to something. I trust Rowling!

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I’ll be much more excited when a different director is announced for the third one

[Bilbo 3,709]

I think Yates will do them all. 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

It feels like the cinematic world of Harry Potter has been held hostage for over 10 years.  I’ve forgotten what being truly excited for a new Potter film feels like.

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

7 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

It feels like the cinematic world of Harry Potter has been held hostage for over 10 years.  I’ve forgotten what being truly excited for a new Potter film feels like.

In a stunning move, the
mediocre film director, David
Yates, has swept into the
British capital and kidnapped 
the Harry Potter franchise 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,488]

1 hour ago, Bilbo said:

I think Yates will do them all. 

I think that that's virtually confirmed.

 

 

 

 

47 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

It feels like the cinematic world of Harry Potter has been held hostage for over 10 years.  I’ve forgotten what being truly excited for a new Potter film feels like.

Agreed. After DH pt2, I thought "Is that it? Oh, well, where shall we eat?"

[crumbs 14,287]

David Yates has nothing better to do with his life than make these potentially magical and charming movies into dreary, lifeless slogs. What a curmudgeon.

 

He's too miserable to even work with Williams, but at least he's had the good sense to keep JNH employed.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

He should direct for Bond!

[Nick Parker 3,040]

All of you constantly bash and diss David Yates, every chance you get. I'm sick of it. Don't you think there's a reason why JK Rowling has chosen him as the helmsman for all things Harry Potter in the cinema realm? I can guarantee they've had countless conversations about the approach of this beloved series on the screen.

 

"So JK, how's this scene look?"

"Mm, acceptable, Dave, but really when I wrote it I was imagining something very lifeless, and boring. Is there a way you could remove any sense of vitality, momentum, and vibrancy?"

"I know just what to do."

"Splendid, Dave. IBut it's just not the look...there's something else...the music, it sounds a little too...magical. That's not how I imagine my world."

"I know just what to do."

"Excellent! Dave, when I wrote these books, I wanted to inspire countless children across the world and spark their imagination, their sense of wonder. And with these films, and their dry, stale, indie drama settings, I can now complete that mission. Thank you so much for understanding my vision and bringing it to life. Thank you."

[Holko 9,491]

He did suck all the life and magic out of the universe. And JK apparently doesn't care how her creations are ruined, look at the Potter movies and Cursed Child. She seems happy to cooperate for some reason.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

50 minutes ago, Nick Parker said:

All of you constantly bash and diss David Yates, every chance you get. I'm sick of it. Don't you think there's a reason why JK Rowling has chosen him as the helmsman for all things Harry Potter in the cinema realm? I can guarantee they've had countless conversations about the approach of this beloved series on the screen.

 

"So JK, how's this scene look?"

"Mm, acceptable, Dave, but really when I wrote it I was imagining something very lifeless, and boring. Is there a way you could remove any sense of vitality, momentum, and vibrancy?"

"I know just what to do."

"Splendid, Dave. IBut it's just not the look...there's something else...the music, it sounds a little too...magical. That's not how I imagine my world."

"I know just what to do."

"Excellent! Dave, when I wrote these books, I wanted to inspire countless children across the world and spark their imagination, their sense of wonder. And with these films, and their dry, stale, indie drama settings, I can now complete that mission. Thank you so much for understanding my vision and bringing it to life. Thank you."

 

Since when is an author the best judge of how their work should be adapted?  They rarely are if you ask me.

[Chen G. 3,940]

2 hours ago, Holko said:

He did suck all the life and magic out of the universe.

 

David Yates is a good filmmaker.

 

I happened across Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince recently, and it was a very good film. Like Yates’ The Order of the Phoenix (which is excellent), it’s a grower.

[Nick1Ø66 4,687]

I don't have any problems Yates.  His Potter films were better than the ones by Columbus and whoever directed GOF (can't recall at the moment).

 

You lot don't appreciate how hard it is to turn these books into films. It's a minor miracle that they all turned out as good as they did.

[Pieter Boelen 740]

As far as I'm concerned, Yates' OotP and HBP were a step up from the two prior movies.

But that two-part finale left something to be desired. Thankfully that 'something' ended up being "Fantastic Beasts". 

[toothless 963]

I don't know why and I may be completely wrong but I think FB will be to JNH what LOTR was to HS or SW to JW. Anyway, I look forward to FB2. Even if I don't like Yate's film aesthetically speaking, I found the first one to be a nice and well executed movie with enough magic to be happy

[Jurassic Shark 12,008]

So where are those fantastic breasts anyway?

[Arpy 4,145]

I don't want to downplay the role of adapting a book into film, because I understand it's a monumental process, but Yates came into a series where the characters, world, cast and crew, design etc. was already setup and did little to add any creative flair or style. 

 

I think he did a good job of pulling the ending threads together, but my biggest disappointment is that we didn't get to see that vision change over the course of the last four Potter films, and now into Fantastic Beasts. From OotP to FB1 it's a gloomy, dark, morose, magic-less affair. I think it deserves a new creative spark to inject some much needed levity and magic into the series.

[Chen G. 3,940]

The Half Blood Prince had incredible levity.

[A. A. Ron 1,736]

 

3 hours ago, Arpy said:

I don't want to downplay the role of adapting a book into film, because I understand it's a monumental process, but Yates came into a series where the characters, world, cast and crew, design etc. was already setup and did little to add any creative flair or style. 

 

I think he did a good job of pulling the ending threads together, but my biggest disappointment is that we didn't get to see that vision change over the course of the last four Potter films, and now into Fantastic Beasts. From OotP to FB1 it's a gloomy, dark, morose, magic-less affair. I think it deserves a new creative spark to inject some much needed levity and magic into the series.

 

Why should Yates have had to add extra "creative flair?" The world had enough already as established in the first 4 films. It's much more about story after that in the books as well.

[Bilbo 3,709]

I dunno what people are looking for exactly. 

 

Magic is an everyday occurrence in that world. It’s normality. You hardly want moments like Harry’s amazement of magic in the tent in Goblet of Fire in every film thereafter?

 

The darkness started with POA and as the story got darker they could hardly make the picture more bright and colorful as the series went on. 

 

6 hours ago, Chen G. said:

The Half Blood Prince had incredible levity.

 

There is. It annoyed me for the longest time too but when you look at 6,7, and 8 and a trilogy of sorts it works so much better IMO and I’ve come to accept it.

[Docteur Qui 1,544]

2 hours ago, Bilbo said:

Magic is an everyday occurrence in that world. It’s normality. You hardly want moments like Harry’s amazement of magic in the tent in Goblet of Fire in every film thereafter?

 

Yeah but the books depicted Hogwarts and its universe as brimming with magical details at every turn. You don’t need the characters to react to the magic, but it goes a long way including it. Every frame of PoA was teaming with little moments of magic, whether it was the time transition sequences, a cup with a spoon stirring in it or an enormous giraffe racing through the portraits on the staircase (all of which was treated as mundane and “of the world”). None of the later directors had much interest in this kind of filmmaking and the films suffered as a result.

[Chen G. 3,940]

I think getting too involved with the world in which a film is set, is the surest way to lose sight of the narrative. We've had enough (if not too much, at times) of a taste of the world itself with the first few films. With these later ones I just wanted the central conflict and the characters' stories to be told well and - apart from the underwhelming conclusion in Deathly Hallows part 2 - I would say they were.

 

And as these character stories progress and the conflict deepens, it makes sense that they would go down darker avenues, and so the treatment that the later films got was very much on-point.

 

That's not to say they're without fault - there are some unappetizing digital grading choices in The Half-Blood Prince, Deathly Hallows part 2 and especially The Goblet of Fire; some of the juxtaposition of levity and gravity is pushing the boundaries a bit; some of the romantic attachments don't carry much weight (more by the design of JK Rowling than anything else), and some character stories feel unfulfilled, etc. But overall, I'd say they're more effective than not, and certainly more effective than anything Chris Columbus got.

[Arpy 4,145]

6 hours ago, Muldoon said:

 

 

Why should Yates have had to add extra "creative flair?" The world had enough already as established in the first 4 films. It's much more about story after that in the books as well.

I felt after Columbus, Cuaron and Newell brought some of their stylistic tendencies to the world of Potter, then, after Order of the Phoenix, the filmmaking became very one note and bland - this to me is just a consequence of the same director producing the last four films.

 

Let me get something straight, I consider Half-Blood Prince one of the best Potter films, I just felt that some of the stylistic filmmaking that made Azkaban and Goblet special was missing from the later entries. When I refer to the magic of the films being absent, I don't mean magic has to fly out of everyone's arse and fill the screen, I just meant the world felt stripped back and almost soulless, like there wasn't any light behind the eyes of the director.

[Chen G. 3,940]

I think The Half Blood Prince is "a David Yates film", stylistically. Its just that his stylistic tendencies are more subtle. Unlike common thinking, directors tend to get more stylistically subtle as time goes on, rather than the other way around.

 

All of these have more style than any of the two Chris Columbus entries, in which the camerawork rarely exceeded standard coverage.

[Naïve Old Fart 9,488]

H-B P is, probably, the best looking film in the series, and is much better than the snoozefest that was DH pt.II.

Do JWfaners think that Yates was trying to match, visually, the "feel" of the last three books?

[Holko 9,491]

The last three books are slice-of-life with dark stuff and heavier themes gradually forcing themselves to the surface from the background. My memories of the look of the Yates films, maybe with the exception of Phoenix, is they are bleak, depressing, soulless, lifeless, bland, either washed out or so dark you can't tell a person's face apart from their robes or the wall. He went WAY overboard with the "these are not the little kids' stories anymore, these are more dark and edgy" style. Cuaron probably introduced that feel too early, but overall balanced it better I think.

[Chen G. 3,940]

I do think he occasionally goes overboard with the digital grading as far as making the frame darker goes.

 

But I think the dark turn is appropriate, whether its like the novels or not-quite. What matters is that, like the books, there's escalation: it starts on a lighter, more jouvenile note, and develops into something dark and confronting.

 

To say that its lifeless is a gross exaggeration: like I said, the juxtaposition with humor in The Half Blood Prince is (mostly) excellent, and there's a lot of heart to, say, The Order of the Phoenix - which I would say is a downright excellent film.

[Holko 9,491]

5 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

To say that its lifeless is a gross exaggeration: like I said, the juxtaposition with humor in The Half Blood Prince is (mostly) excellent, and there's a lot of heart to, say, The Order of the Phoenix - which I would say is a downright excellent film.

Richard asked about the visuals, and i did say Phoenix is kind of excepted from all this.

[Chen G. 3,940]

But visuals are more than just color palette...

[Holko 9,491]

Not when you either are completely unable to make out what's happening on screen or are wholly bored of it because everything's smudged in brown and grey filters.

[Chen G. 3,940]

By far the most unappetizing in terms of color palette is The Goblet of Fire.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

It looks like it was all shot underwater.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I like the blonde in these movies.

[Holko 9,491]

Really? These just make me want to slit my wrists rather than watch 6 for a second time after 8 years, however nicely they may be framed:

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I agree it's ugly but they still couldn't make Emma look bad.

[Chen G. 3,940]

9 minutes ago, Holko said:



 

What's wrong with that one?

[Holko 9,491]

It's not bad on its own as say a piece of art, but when the entire movie, even lighter moments look like this, drowned in dull browns, it's just depressing.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I remember a scene where Harry and Draco were in the bathroom together and I couldn't even tell what was happening. They could have been blowing each other for all I know.

[Holko 9,491]

And then Harry just stares at Draco like he's an unimportant fly on the floor after he just very nearly caused him to bleed out and die. The characters often act as wooden as the grading makes tham look.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I had to Google what happened in the book for that scene. Wtf?

[Chen G. 3,940]

45 minutes ago, Holko said:

it's just depressing.

 

That's a good thing: this movie ends in tragedy, and its on the verge of even more tragic outcomes.

 

37 minutes ago, Horner's Dynamic Range said:

I remember a scene where Harry and Draco were in the bathroom together and I couldn't even tell what was happening. They could have been blowing each other for all I know.

 

That's perhaps the most egregious that this film gets in terms of destaturation, yes.

 

But most of the time the film looks okay. Could it have looked better with a more percieved naturalistic color palette in most scenes? yes. But its hardly as bad as its made up to be. The Goblet of Fire is much worse, and even that still looks palatable in most scenes, too.

 

30 minutes ago, Holko said:

The characters often act as wooden as the grading makes tham look.

 

Textbook halo effect.

 

The acting in the film I've found to be mostly strong.

 

 

[Holko 9,491]

10 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

That's a good thing: this movie ends in tragedy, and its on the verge of even more tragic outcomes.

 

The book is mostly carefree Hogwarts life - probably the first time in Harry's life, and as we know, the last time. Sure, dark events happen, but the biggest problems are around girlfriends and Quidditch games, following Draco around or trying to figure out who scribbled in a schoolbook It's not until the very end that things converge and turn tragic. It's the calm before the storm, the book is shorter and simpler than 4, 5 and 7. You said the movie has a ton of levity and I remember they tried to import a lot of teen rebellion and other stuff they left out of Phoenix. So the bleak grade misses the mark completely. It's almost as mismatched as what Lucas did at times in Sith - Oh, your illegal husband murdered little kids and you're also pregnant from him? Good thing it's a beautiful sunny day to take the weight off!

[Chen G. 3,940]

I think the movie conveys the "calm before the storm" atmosphere well, it just replaces the "carefree" nature of staying at Hogwarts with more a more foreboding undercurrent: the place is just short of being besieged with the students inside, so the darkness is more than warranted. This may not abide by the atmosphere laid in the book (which I haven't read), per se, but given what's to come in the next film, I think its an appropriate piece of build-up and therefore a solid storytelling choice.

 

Outside of that, there's very little in the way of immediate danger or tragic eventualities in the bulk of the film's running time (and its a movie that takes its time) and there isn't even really a central, present antagonist. So muting the color palette and peppering the film with shadows and atmospherics is one of the go-to storytelling elements.

 

You can of course go too far with the execution and I do think that in some scenes Yates has, but overall I think its by far more effective than not.

[Holko 9,491]

Now we got somewhere - I would've preferred to keep closer to the book in making Hogwarts the bubble where they can still be carefree kids, with the proper lively colours we know - 

this:

instead of this:

 

Then adjust to more dark and bleak when real events start poking holes in the bubble: the Katie Bell attack, the memories (did they even have more than 1?), the cave (would prefer the striking green light that's present in the book and on the cover but I can see how that would be non-filmic), the final battle (or non-battle) and Dumbledore's funeral. (oh.)