Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a fully "okay" movie. I still like the magic and the creatures. It raises some questions about characters I previously thought of as "good," like Dumbledore and Queenie. I'm interested to see where they go with the rest of the series.

I had a lot of problems seeing Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. I wanted to see it in a theater on my birthday. It was only playing into theaters by then, one in Shoreline, and one in Tacoma. The one in Shoreline only had one showing a day. I don't see movies in theaters very often (in fact, it's about once a year, on my birthday). I didn't realize that a lot of the theaters have switched over to having you pick your seat when you buy the ticket.

I didn't get to the theater until about five minutes before the movie started. The only tickets that were left were in the front row. I tried it out, but it was impossible to see anything. I should have just seen a different movie, but I wound up not seeing anything at all, which really sucked.

I wound up waiting until Grindelwald came to the $4 theater to try again. I normally sit in the back row of the theater, but the screen at the Crest was so small that I wanted to sit in the middle. I ended up not being able to do that, even though there were open seats where I wanted to be. So I had to sit all the way in the back. For about the first third of the movie, I felt like I couldn't even see it, and I kept missing a bunch of dialogue because I couldn't hear it, either.

I read a review that said Newt's affect gets really annoying. Maybe my perception was just colored by that, but I definitely agreed. Like, just stand up straight at least.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

There isn't a whole lot more to the plot of Fantastic Beasts than "the guy has to get his creatures back," but I do always like the world of Harry Potter, and it's interesting to see it in a different country, in the '20s, without Harry Potter or any kids at all. It's a pleasant starting point for the series.

Last movie of 2016, in which I saw eight more movies than 2015. Still didn't quite hit my goal of one a week. I'm glad I saw Fantastic Beasts in the theater, although a lot of the CG was slightly off. I wasn't expecting much, and it delivered on that; another one of those where it's pretty much all in the trailer. Newt was a likeable character. He reminded me of The Doctor, probably because of the hair, the blue coat, and being British. All of the characters were likeable, though, especially Queenie and Jacob.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is obviously a middle movie. It's a little bit grueling, but they're on a long journey. It's still interesting, and it definitely leaves you wanting to see how it all ends. 

I actually saw The Two Towers a week after the first LotR movie, so it was a nice continuation of the story. I pretty much have the same thoughts about this one as I did about the first one. I like hearing all the language, and seeing how they represent everything. Liv Tyler makes a pretty good Elf. They changed a lot more things in this movie than the first one. I didn't think they were necessary changes this time, either.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

I really liked seeing Tolkein's book "come to life," to be cliché, in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. I don't agree with some of the changes they made in the plot, but they did a great job visually. It does seem a bit dated, but so do the books.

I've wanted to see LotR since it came out, but I wanted to read the books first, and I didn't do that until a couple years ago, and by then I didn't have time to watch old movies anymore. I tried to read The Hobbit, and either it was the most boring book I've ever read, or it was one of maybe two books that was so terrible I didn't finish it; I can't remember which. Either way, I won't be seeing that series (and it's not supposed to be good, anyway).

I feel like an unusual amount of memes came out of this series, like "one does not simply walk into Mordor." And that wasn't even a big line in the movie. Why did it become so popular?

This movie has a weird look to it, like it was shot on old-school film, and it has a weird old-school fantasy vibe to it in general. But so did the books -- they were written in 1937-49, after all -- so maybe they were going for authenticity. The opening part in Hobbiton reminded me of Willow.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is pretty anticlimactic, especially if you already know all the spoilers. It's not that interesting visually, and there's just not a whole lot going on.

I finally finished the Harry Potter series, and it only took me until four years after the last movie came out. The beginning of this one is really weird. It felt like I came in at the middle of the movie, which I guess makes sense since it's a two-parter. I didn't remember Part 1 at all, though, so I was pretty confused. Maybe they could've done some kind of recap. Or maybe they thought they did. There wasn't a whole lot going on in this movie. I was pretty tired when I watched it, and I was just waiting for it to end already. It probably would've been more interesting if I hadn't found out all the spoilers from the internet.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince moves along at a decent pace, without too many unnecessary distractions. There's not really anything "magical" about it, but it advances the plot, and it's better than the previous two Harry Potter movies.

I accidentally watched Harry Potter #7 before #6, but now that I've seen this one, I realize I really didn't miss much, even though it felt like I did when I watched #7. I probably should read a synopsis of "the story so far" before I watch the last one, though. I don't remember any of the Tom Riddle business, and apparently I should. I also don't remember what happened with Draco's father, but I guess something did.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

Like all the HP movies, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is well done. It looks polished, the acting is good, and the story is creative. This one was definitely boring in places, but it kept me interested for the most part.

I like the Harry Potter movies. I've never read the books, and I don't really see any reason to, but I used to watch the movies when they hit a network TV channel for the first time. I think I even saw one of them in the theater. They're always well done; they look great, the acting is good, the story/things in it are creative. I totally screwed up the series for myself with this one, though. I knew I had seen HP 1-5, and I thought there were only 7 movies in the series. I thought Deathly Hallows 1 and 2 were movies 6 and 7. So, since I'd seen 1-5, I thought it was time for Deathly Hallows. How very wrong I was.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The first few minutes didn't grab me, but the Tri-Wizard Championship proved to be interesting, and I'm curious to see the next one.