“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”: Word of mouth continues to decline, does the series have a future?

Remember when “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” was released?

This Harry Potter series of films, which appeared on the big screen after a lapse of nearly six years, has been highly concerned by countless magic fans around the world since its inception.

Where will “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” lead the future of “The Wizarding World” after the unprecedented success and impact of the “Harry Potter series”?

Can this series, which seems to have little to do with the Harry Potter series, finally achieve the same box office success as Harry Potter?

I believe that the name Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is not unfamiliar to many loyal magic fans.

This was originally the designated textbook used in Harry Potter’s Conservation of Magical Creatures class, and the author of this textbook is Newt Scamander, the protagonist of the movie “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”.

In the real world, J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series of novels, created and published the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them as a spin-off of the series in 2001.

After a lapse of many years, when J. K. Rowling, who had completed seven “Harry Potter” novels, looked back at the magical world she had created and wanted to extend it further, the first thing she thought of was this spin-off publication. .

In her opinion, the legendary story of Harry Potter has come to an end, but the journey of the wizarding world is still going on. Since the ending of the later story has been completed, why not go back to the past of the story and tell the familiar and unfamiliar Legends and those little-known decisions and heartaches…

J. K. Rowling’s original plan was to put the magical past that was covered but not detailed in “Harry Potter” into “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” and present it in a documentary-like format.

However, in discussions with producer David Heyman, the plan gradually turned into how to adapt the story idea into a Wizarding World series that is closely related to “Harry Potter” but also very different.

On the other hand, after the end of the Harry Potter series, Warner’s cash cow is almost depleted.

Although in the long course of development, Warner has mastered a lot of classic IP, but because it is too classic, it is no less difficult to adapt many IPs to make movies again than to re-develop an original IP.

In the production of superhero movies, due to Marvel’s new movie universe development strategy, Warner has completely fallen into a passive dilemma.

For Warners, J. K. Rowling’s idea of ​​creating a prequel to the “Harry Potter” series is undoubtedly a good idea, so the two sides hit it off, and the “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” series of films has officially entered the right track. Fans and fans who have seen the movie are already familiar with it.

Although the film still received negative comments from some professional media, such as the lack of innovative vitality of the step-by-step plot, it is difficult to get out of the shadow of the brilliant Harry Potter series, the deep emotional intersection and interaction between the magical animals and the protagonist is difficult to form, and the story lacks substantial thematic connotation and many more.

But in terms of box office results alone, the latest work in the wizarding world, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”, which landed on the big screen after nearly six years, is still a success. The film was finally bought with a production cost of $180 million. Over $800 million at the global box office.

For many series of films that have lasted for many years, how to balance tradition and innovation, story and tribute, extension and deepening is undoubtedly a serious and realistic problem, because those who enter the cinema will never be only old audiences, but also Some new audiences who haven’t been exposed to the series before.

As the saying goes, as the audience grows, the movie also needs to grow; as the audience changes, the movie also needs to change.

One of the great things about “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is that it’s not overly rigid and constrained by the magical world already presented in the “Harry Potter” series of movies. It’s covered in “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”, but it’s by no means the whole story, because a whole new audience is expecting a whole new story, not a remake of the previous series.

Compared with Harry Potter’s story, which is mainly focused on the UK, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’s story background and setting are undoubtedly broader and more mature. The first part of the series tells the story of Newt Scamander, a magical zoologist who has traveled across the ocean to pursue his pursuit in New York. Fantastic Beasts is inadvertently involved in a dark magic event that threatens the world.

New York in the 1920s, a magical world that is both familiar and unfamiliar, and new adventures, all make “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” different from “Harry Potter”.

What is more worth mentioning is that the film integrates real history into the story and realizes a new interpretation.

For example, “Second Salemers”, in the film this is an extremist group that opposes wizards and resists magic, and they use their hands to break their wands as their marks.

In real history, the small town of Salem in the United States once had a vigorous “Salem Witch Approval Case”. More than 200 innocent women were arrested, imprisoned and even executed for being accused of being witches.

The film’s use of this special name, on the one hand, highlights the organization’s firm resistance to wizards and magic, and on the other hand is a reflection of the American Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.

In the 1920s, extreme racial discrimination in the United States intensified. Many white people who advocate racial superiority beat, abused and even killed black people. This is almost the same as the “Second Salemers” indiscriminately persecuting wizards and resisting magic.

On the other hand, in addition to being integrated into the real history, the film also draws a series of troublesome storylines through all kinds of fantastic animals, so that the film maintains a high level of entertainment and viewing experience. .

After experiencing the baptism of countless Hollywood blockbusters of the same type, it is obvious that the traditional battle between good and evil has been difficult to meet the audience’s viewing needs, so director David Yates added a new variable to the film – Obscurus.

Credence Barebone, played by Ezra Miller, grew up under the strict control of his adoptive mother. With his wizarding blood, he eventually transformed into an Obscurial in this deformed living environment.

That is, there is a monster named Obscurus in the body. Once it suffers a severe emotional impact, the Obscurus in Obscurial will explode instantly, and the wizard will transform into a mist-like monster with powerful impact and destructive power.

Unable to bear the harsh reality and the strict control of his adoptive mother, he finally accidentally killed his adoptive mother, and at the same time brutally killed the congressman who regarded himself as a freak.

The harsh reality eventually transformed him from a victim to a rebel and a perpetrator, and even though Newt and Tina were moved by him and understood, he eventually defected to Grindelwald’s arms and became the The latter is a powerful weapon for realizing his ambitions.

The tragic color of Credence makes this character a bit more sad and realistic than the traditional heinous villain. After all, in last year’s popular “Joker”, he was also not accepted by the mainstream society and lived in The protagonist on the fringes of society eventually turned into a symbol of chaos and rebellion under the influence of multiple factors.

After the unprecedented success of “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”, Warners apparently couldn’t hold back, and without careful script polishing and discussion, decided to let J. K. Rowling do whatever he wanted with the sequel.

From the perspective of the finished film, the director and screenwriter undoubtedly want to present more themes in the sequel, such as continuing the conflicts and contradictions in the first work and further deepening them, showing the audience a connection to “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” more Easter eggs, to bring more various magical animal characters…

But what “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald‎” did not consider clearly, what kind of story the movie wants to tell, if the story of the previous work can be considered complete and qualified, then the messy story of the sequel can only be used in the end. Score fifty-nine.

Because from the beginning of this movie, many fans began to feel that the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them‎ series was not shot for the story, but to create a sequel, which is to say that it is selling feelings.

On April 8, “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore‎” was released. The third part did not recover the decline, but received the lowest score in the series. Due to the impact of the epidemic, the box office will certainly not be a miracle.

Fans’ dissatisfaction with “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore‎” is concentrated on the loose plot, low script and full of mistakes. It was once a box office panacea and a sentimental work, and it may be difficult to have a sequel after this.

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