‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore’: Magic Lost Its Charm?

“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore”, with the halo of “Harry Potter”, came slowly under the impact of the new crown epidemic, which can be described as smug.

However, the reality is not satisfactory.

Whether it is a die-hard Harry Potter fan, a new “Fantastic Beasts” fan, or a passerby audience, it seems that they are not very satisfied with this new film.

Also directed by David Yates and written by J. K. Rowling, why has the quality of “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” declined so badly?

To answer this question, we need to go back to the beginning of the whole “Harry Potter movie universe”.

In 1997, J.K. Rowling, a 32-year-old female English teacher living in the UK, applied for a grant of £13,000 from the Scottish Arts Association, and was finally able to write the novel “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” after her years of hard work. Delivered for publication.

Joanne may not have realized at the time that the story of the little wizard she conceived on a train journey many years ago will be translated into 73 languages ​​in the next 20 years, with more than 500 million copies sold worldwide, and it will make She became one of the richest women in the world.

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“Harry Potter” can become the most globally influential big IP in the early 21st century, and Warner Pictures has contributed greatly.

From the first film “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in 2001 to the final chapter of the series “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2‎” in 2011, a total of eight films were made in ten years, and the global box office exceeded 77 One hundred million U.S. dollars.

Because the film has a stronger penetration ability than the novel, although in the process of film adaptation, the content of the novel will inevitably gain and loss, but more audiences are familiar with the Harry Potter story series through the film.

Especially since the fifth “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix‎”, the novel and the film have started a mutually reinforcing development model, and through the iterative development of the global online new media community, the attention of the global audience has been continuously increased. .

But unfortunately, due to various limitations, Harry Potter novels finally ended in the seventh “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”.

From the perspective of literary creation alone, the end of the seven-part series is not perfect, but it is quite exciting enough to make J. K. Rowling a legendary writer in the history of children’s literature in the world.

However, for Warner Bros., the producer of the film, this is far from enough.

Anyone with a little understanding of the operating model of modern commercial films will know that the biggest risk to the film industry comes from the uncertainty of the box office.

And a film series can create a stable box office of about 960 million US dollars per film in ten years. For film companies, it is undoubtedly an indispensable “cash cow”, and it is the management of the company’s capital. Great material for market “storytelling”.

So, for studios, the popularity of the Harry Potter franchise has to continue in some form.

This also led to the “Fantastic Beasts” series we know today.

In the wizarding world of Harry Potter, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is a very important book, which describes various magical creatures in the wizarding world.

This book was created by J. K. Rowling under the name of “Newt Scamander”, which can be seen as the author’s attempt to further present the imagined “magic world”, and also laid the groundwork for his later new creative plan.

In late 2016, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” was released as the first film in the Fantastic Beasts franchise.

This is the first novel-free original film based on The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and the opening of the five prequels to the Harry Potter series.

It is worth noting that in July of the same year, the stage play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”, which was the orthodox sequel to the “Harry Potter series”, was released in the UK, and it was also an original work without novel support.

Connecting the two, it is not difficult to see that the consensus of all parties related to IP interests at this time is not only to add to the story system, but also to subtract from the business model – it is not important to have original novels or not. The name “Harry Potter” alone can pry open the wallets of the masses.

But from the practical point of view, it is not satisfactory. On closer inspection, whether it is a novel or a movie, the main stage of the Harry Potter series of stories is placed at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which can be described as “small scenes, big scenes”, and the creators can be as refined as ivory carvings. Carved.

From novels to movies, the professional film production team can simplify the complex on the basis of the original work, highlight the backbone, so that the original party and passers-by audiences can be satisfied.

However, in the “Fantastic Beasts” series, film creation gradually developed in the direction of collapse, and the key point is that the stakeholders of the IP want too much.

It should not only be positioned as a prequel to Harry Potter and show the long-cherished wish of Dumbledore and the first generation of “The Great Devil” Grindelwald; it should also show magical creatures and expand the scope of “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter”; “The positioning is marching towards all ages, and even evolving into a “movie universe”.

Objectively speaking, the first film of the series “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” still maintains the consistent tone of the Harry Potter series, and J. K. Rowling’s iconic “suspense-reversal” narrative mode continues. The display of animals is also basically the driving factor of the main plot.

In “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald‎”, because of wanting to take care of too much, a large number of plot designs went to a dead end, which destroyed the integrity of the film’s narrative logic. And because too many new characters are added, and there is not enough time to lay out the growth curve of the characters, both new and old characters tend to be instrumental.

But it finally left a fairly satisfactory plot “hook” at the end of the story, leaving the audience with the expectation that the villain camp is about to engage in major events.

Disappointingly, “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” hardly qualifies as a stand-alone film work, or as a connecting middle piece in the series.

First of all, as the focus of the last film at the end, the villain Grindelwald’s “power grab” and Dumbledore’s fateful battle with Grindelwald are handled very hastily, giving a feeling of a simple ending.

Secondly, the motives of the characters’ behavior are unclear, and the characters collectively lose their intelligence.

As the most important “Fantastic Beasts” in the movie, although it can be seen that the director tried to make them play the role of promoting the main plot, but in fact it made the characters of Fantastic Beasts more instrumental, and even reduced them to a dispensable existence.

Although we have no way of knowing the full picture of the creation process of “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore”, from the state presented by the film, the stakeholders are not in a state of synergy, but a mutual state of the game.

“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” is the greatest common divisor after this game, taking care of all aspects, but in the end no one is satisfied.

Before and after the release of “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” there were rumors that Warner Bros.’ management was deliberately suspending production on the series.

In fact, whether it is to bite the bullet and finish the series, or re-drum and open another one, as long as “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” has enough loyal fans, the legend of the wizarding world will continue.

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