movies

summer, nature & poetry | Bi-Weekly Update

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New book posts:

Other books I’ve been reading:

  • Why I Wake Early by Mary Oliver (poetry)
  • Tell Me by Kim Addonizio (poetry)
  • Rereading Felicity by Mary Oliver (poetry)

Added to TBR:

  • What Is This Thing Called Love by Kim Addonizio (poetry)
  • Mortal Trash by Kim Addonizio (poetry)
  • Bukowski in a Sundress: confessions from a writing life by Kim Addonizio (memoir, essays)
  • Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford (memoir, true crime): about experiencing sexual abuse on an elite boarding school
  • frank: sonnets by Diane Seuss (poetry)
  • The Book of Love: poems of ectasy and longing by Rumi (poetry, classics, philosophy)
  • Tales of Norse Mythology by Hélène A. Guerber (mythology)
  • The Anthropocene Reviewed: essays on a human-centered planet by John Green (nonfiction, essays)
  • Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson (classics, humor, journalism)

Three things on my mind:

  • So much has happened lately, most of them really nice. I got through my exams with better marks than I could’ve wished for despite lots of roadblocks, spent some time alone waiting for my 2nd covid-19 vaccine. Managed to get it and finally spend time with friends and family, some I haven’t met in two years now.
  • This spring exam season was the first time I sat down and was like “I can actually do this” because I do love what I’m studying (physics). I just don’t love the whole regiment I have to uphold to try to get a working, cooperative brain and focus. Like basically I have to schedule when I do certain activities as I know I’ll have pain afterwards, mainly eating, and it was tricky to figure out the most efficient times. I have crohn’s disease among other things, and it’s fairly active still, but we’re working on it.

  • So I’ve done a lot in my daily life this summer, but I’ve read so little. Mostly poetry. And I have been very happy, for the most part. I’ve watched a lot – a lot – of movies, because that’s a social thing to do. I can’t get through a movie or tv series without skipping some parts if I’m on my own, so I really only get the chance to enjoy them under supervision of other people. I did watch cats, the movie. And would wholeheartedly recommend against it. My body was having physical reactions to not being able to keep up with the godawful CGI/human cat faces, the inconsistency of them making it only more fucked up. Glad I did it with someone beside me, it was hilarious to suffer together. Better movies I watched for the first time was The Matrix (I laughed at every matrix I calculated with for the rest of the week), The Martian, Gravity and My Neighbor Totoro. All great films, of which Totoro is definitely the supreme winner.

  • I’ve been reading a lot of love poems lately. I opened Felicity by Mary Oliver to the part of Love, and the first thing I met was Rumi’s writing that she included. There was no less of a sign of wisdom to not let fear guide you in anything, let alone emotions of importance like love.

Someone who does not run toward the allure of love walks a road where nothing lives.

Rumi

I did think, let’s go about this slowly.

This is important. This should take

some really deep thought. We should take

small thoughtful steps.

But, bless us, we didn’t.

Mary Oliver, Felicity

Hp & the deathly weapons made my week | Bi-Weekly Update

aquapages // elineLeave a comment

New book posts:

Other books I’ve been reading:

  • Love and Math by Edward Frenkel
  • A Poetry Hanbook by Mary Oliver

Added to TBR:

  • The Lottery by Shirley Jackson (classics, short story, horror)
  • Pedagogy of the oppressed by Paulo Freire (nonfiction, pedagogy, politics)
  • Chilling adventures of Sabrina vol. 1 by Aguirre-Sacasa and Hack (graphic novel)
  • The Little Friend by Donna Tartt: not that excited by this book synopsis or the lack of knowledge I’ve got of it even while being a big Tartt reader, but still – I got to give it a try
  • Lanny by Max Porter (magical realism, small-town)
  • American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis: because my deep down on him, Donna Tartt and their time at Bennington College has interested me enough to actually read his book even though I do believe he’s a high grade idiot at his older days from the clips I’ve seen.

Three things on my mind:

  • I always know I’m going to be offline when starting a new semester, but this time a lot was thrown at me in a row. Do you ever get the feeling that if you knew beforehand how much you would have to go through in a short amount of time – you would just not be able to? I’m not so sure I want to be able to tell the future, is what I’m saying. Anyway, I’m leaving those two massive physics exams, then writing a majorly important letter of complaint bc of misdiagnosis (in hopes of an apology or at least that the doctor not make that mistake again) the last possible day before it would be out-dated like its own “statue of limitation” kind of thing. It was then followed by a week filled with every major hospital appointment at once (bc everything was postponed until now that corona is less of a problem here) and an abrupt total worsening of my autoimmune disease. Also during those three weeks I had signed up to welcome new students, so I went to a couple social gatherings, which made me even more tired, but also might have brought the break of normalcy to save my brain a little (well, a lot).
  • Ahh, a book blog this was supposed to be. Well, there’s been a lack of book blog posts, but it’s coming. Until then I would highly recommend writing some of Mary Oliver poetry on a sheet and hang it on the wall, reciting each one as many times you want until you feel comforted enough to sleep. My favourites recently has been “Wild Geese”, “I go down to the shore”, “An old story” and “Dogfish” (link here!).
  • HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY WEAPONS! Why hadn’t I heard of this fanedit of the first hp movie that turns every wand into a gun along with more clever & fun additions to scenes? I had doubts, thinking it would be overwhelmingly much, but it’s just far enough between the altered scene that it’s just easter-egg kind of surprises to a movie you (hopefully) already love. (I realize after some research that I didn’t know about it until now because it came out a month ago … in which I was as mentioned prev. very offline.) Here’s more info.

a bit of a reading slump | Bi-Weekly Update

aquapages // eline7 Comments

New book posts:

Other books I’ve been reading:

literally none.

Added to TBR:

  • Mona Lisa Smile by Deborah Chiel (dark academia)
  • The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (fantasy, m/m relationship)
  • The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli (classic from 1532, politics)
  • The Tradition by Jericho Brown (poetry, lgbt)
  • Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno (YA, magical realism, lgbt)
  • Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (magical realism)
  • Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle (graphic novel)
  • The Once and Future King by T. H. White (fantasy, historical fiction)

Three things on my mind:

  • I’ve been more and more unsure about using goodreads. Like I’ve never used it much as a social media platform, only from time to time, but I have over 1400 books on there and it’s been great to catalogue books, especially as I’ve moved twice, left books behind in one house and used to use the library a lot. I tried out The Story Graph which is marketed as an alternative, even if in beta-version. It’s interesting & fun especially with their recommendations, I would recommend checking it out. But the biggest criteria I have for a similiar book platform is reliability and I don’t think I’m going to find a similiar enough platform that has that, for a while. I used to use a norwegian alternative, way way back, but there’s just so many books and I think that having a big community that adds these in for you is one of the great features that distinguish the different sites. Please let me know if there’s any cool alternatives to goodreads I should check out though!
  • I’m frustrated a lot, recently. My exams back in May was a struggle for multiple reasons that I’m tired of thinking about, but now it seems I might have outright failed one exam as well. This is a bit strange as I’m above the ‘fail’ percentage in most ways they could have marked it, as is a handful of my friends in the same situation, so we’ve all sent in our complaints. The thing I suspect happened is that more than usual got high grades (bc open-textbook exam and possibility to cheat by cooperation), and they changed the criteria for failing based on that without notifying us (which is strange as well). We’ll see when our complaints are processed, I guess. Still, it both gave me a renewed motivation to do better, but at the same time totally wrecked my self-esteem in a way I truly didn’t expect. Of course, a huge part of this is that my health isn’t getting that much better, even though I’ve had plenty of time to relax this summer break. We’ll see I guess.
  • I watched & cried over several movies, for once. I’m back in my home-‘village’ (it’s actually classified as village based on population number), in the house we took over from my late grandparents. And my grandmother was Sami, which has made me particularly interested in finally watching the prize-winning “Sami Blood” (2016) movie. It was as breath-taking and real as I expected, with the main character played by this amazing sami actress Lene Cecilia Sparrok, who really brought all the nuances into the story. It’s set in Sweden and isn’t my grandma’s story, but there’s many similiarities anyway. Being norwegian, I’ve learned of the horrible supression and racist policies put in place against Sami people, but we need movies like this to bring it to the attention to even more people. Let’s never forget the past enough to let it happen again.
  • I also watched the new USA gymnastics documentary; “Athlete A”. It highlighted the many ways Larry Nassar’s abuse was allowed to continue by people in charge, showing a culture at the olympic level with a high degree of various abuse being normalized, and how it all affected his victims. The last part features the more recent, high-profile Maggie Nichols, bringing up the question of if she lost her olympic chance because of reporting him. I wish all the best for her and all the other (there’s so many) victims, and overall it was a great documentary.

TV recs & more queer books | Bi-Weekly Update

aquapages // eline1 Comment

Alternative title; it’s all worse and better at the same time. the irony.

Three things on my mind:

  • So .. my life right now just consists of math, more math, a tiny breakdown where I speak my grievances out loud, to mostly empty air and the occassional puzzled family members walking by, along with playing the mobile version of pocket camp, because I can’t afford a switch. Next week it’s going to be the same, if you replace math with physics. Ahh, this was not how I imagined the second semester of my first year doing a physics bachelor to be, but oh well. Right now it’s wolframalpha all the way.
  • So the situation is less than ideal (also see; bad internet – have to buy 4G when exams, physical health w/ chronic illness worse) and only two of my five exams is done, yet I’ve felt so much better the last three weeks than I have since the beginning of march. Who knows? Nothing much has changed, other than I also now have exams, but it’s a clear goal in front of me to deal with even though my body is in uproar.
  • Things to watch; Outer Banks on Netflix is a great tv series to binge, with a cast of morally grey characters, and some really aesthetic good scenes as well. The Goldfinch movie adaptation got really bad reviews when it came out last year, but I finally watched it (I LOOVE the book) and it wasn’t bad! Actually to the point where I would recommend it, if you go in with quite low expectation. It has the usual problems of a movie trying to fit a big and complex book (so many different settings, spanning over multiple years) into a two hour movie. But the moments it included, it included well. I especially love both the young and the adult Boris.
Outer Banks on Netflix
The Goldfinch movie adaptation

Also for quarantine feelings;

New book posts:

Other books I’ve been reading:

  • I’ve been listening to first “War on Peace” by Ronan Farrow, as I thought I could fall asleep to his voice narrating the strange world of diplomacy and the importance of it; turns out diplomacy in Afghanistan is quite interesting and the book absolutely fantastic overall. I really enjoyed 11 hours of that to have a break from maths, it was magical.
  • And then I started the audiobook version of “Catch and Kill” by Farrow afterwards, taking care to listen during daylight as it’s the most upsetting story about not only the wave of sexual assaults that was brought into light with the ‘MeeToo wave’, the most focus being on Farrow’s reporting of Harvey Weinstein, but how he wasn’t allowed to publish the story and kept from pursuing it for so many months. It was quite the journey, and I felt so much for each of the victims as we get to hear more about what it took for them to decide to come forward. Ahh, I’ll have to write its own post after I’m done with these exams, because more people need to read this book in particular.
  • I might have cleansed my head after all that by reading the three first books in the very YA “The Selection” series by Kiera Cass. It’s so cheesy, but what made me continue was how it was more ‘The Hunger Games’ vibe than I expected.

Added to TBR:

  • Felix ever after by Kacen Callender (young adult, lgbt: trans mc)
  • The program by Suzanne Young (young adult, dystopia)
  • The last true poets of the sea by Julia Drake (young adult, lgbt)
  • The mermaid, the witch, and the sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall (fantasy, lgbt: sapphic romance)
  • Clap when you land by Elizabeth Acevedo(young adult, lgbt): I’ve read & liked “The poet X”
  • The good girl’s guide to murder (mystery): recommended by the author Maureen Johnson on twitter or something
  • Sawkill girls by Claire Legrand (horror-ish, lgbt: f/f romance I think)
  • If I was your girl by Meredith Russo (young adult, lgbt: trans mc)
  • No matter the wreckage by Sarah Kay (poetry)

The Start of Summer | Book Bi-Weekly Update

aquapages // eline1 Comment

I started this past week with spending the whole day celebrating a family birthday and exhausting myself completely, for then to meet up with an old best friend among a lot of strangers. It was definitely worth it in the end, but I was honestly strangely (for me) anxious before getting there and it could’ve gone a lot better. It’s worrying how I go back to being a more uncomfortable and more socially anxious person when I’m back in my old hometown. Hopefully I’ll be able to work some on that this summer.

A summer night spent grilling with (new) friends

New book posts:

Other books I’ve been reading:

I reread of the first three books of the Shatter Me series by Tahereh Mafi: Shatter Me, Unravel Me, Ignite Me, as well as Restore Me

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore (currently reading)

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren (currently reading)

Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde (DNF at 25%. It’s just not for me? I really tried. Also I found out that fictional fanbases are some of my worst pet peeves.)

Added to TBR:

  • Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley (YA contemporary, lgbt, mental illness)
  • Furyborn by Claire Legrand (YA fantasy, bi/pan mc)
  • Soft on Soft by Mina Waheed (f/f romance, contemporary)
  • Nation of Rebels by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter (nonfic, politics)
  • Find Me by Tahereh Mafi (novella)
  • Defy Me by Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me #5)
  • Space Boy by Stephen McCranie (graphic novel)
  • As Many Nows as I Can Get by Shana Youngdahl (YA contemporary romance)

“In one impulsive moment the summer before they leave for college, overachievers Scarlett and David plunge into an irresistible swirl of romance, particle physics, and questionable decisions.” ‘Particle physics’ is in the synopsis so here I am, wanting to give it a try, haha.

  • Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children #1) by Seanan McGuire (YA fantasy, mystery, lgbt w/ asexual mc & trans boy) – it’s compared to Miss Peregine’s Home for Peculiar Children and I’ve read reviews describing it as ‘disturbing’ so that sounds promising!
  • Song of the Crimson Flower by Julie C. Dao (YA fantasy) – I still got to read Forest of a Thousand Lanterns, but I’ve got time as this is released this upcoming fall.

Posts I’ve loved by other bloggers:

  • Andy Winder gave great recommendations for 12 LGBT YA books with transgender protagonists.
  • Library Looter wrote a list of bi/pan MC book recommendations, which is where I found both Soft on Soft and Furyborn.
  • Cotton Candy Book Witch wrote a june rewind which was where I found Space Boy, Every Heart Is a Doorway, Song of the Crimson Flower and As Many Nows As I Can Get. My TBR is never going to decrease, is it? It’s good I’ve upped the pace I read, at least the last two months.

Three things on my mind:

  • I watched Rocketman (the Elton John movie) with my brother & dad and it’s sooo good and unexpected. So different from Bohemian Rhapsody, which I also loved, but it was quite another type of story. Personally I felt this focused more on trauma and dependency, drugs & dissociation as bad coping tactics. Like when Elton John felt like his life had gone too much into drugs and crazy, his idea of normalcy was to become like his more A4 parents and marry a woman, and then gradually you see his idea of normal change through his life until he gets the happier ending and accept himself as gay and ‘weird’. The portrayal of the suicide attempt was so well done. I also really liked the surrealism used to show how Elton was out of it at times because his life was such a grand chaos and also the amazing pacing, with putting a lot of images into a short amount of time. Will definitely have to watch this movie, or at least parts of it, over and over. I might also have been very enthusiastic when my 15 year old brother suggested the movie, because he’s lately shown tendencies to change himself to become more accepted and is about to start a new school. I hope watching media where people are different & accept themselves no matter what is a good counterweight to outside pressure. Also Elton John songs might’ve been playing the last four days straight, which I take as a good sign of it working.

  • I succeeded in packing up all my belongings before going on vacation to the other side of Norway. I both hated & loved it – I really like to be organized and I got to try out Marie Kondo’s Decluttering tactics for real. It was also kind of meditative, but at the other side it was too many memories and choices to be made. Also it took a goddamn long time.

  • I know I made summer goals, but I’m not going to even look at them before next week – when I’m in the countryside of Denmark with all the time in the world to read and study for the upcoming year. The only goal I currently remember is buying a year worth of tea in Aalborg! Also I’m currently walking/cycling everywhere and playing a lot of Wizards Unite and Pokemon Go like the nerd I am. Add me – Wizards Unite 2758 0361 7116 and Pokemon Go 9460 5606 5208.

Movie & TV Adaptations That I’m Terrified Of (Part 2) | Book Things

aquapages // eline1 Comment

Tv series produced by BBC, based on book series by Philip Pullman

Remember the movie that everyone think is crap? Well, it’s bad plot-wise, and without the moral depth on the books, but at least I thought the effects like the polar bear was nice to look at. I’ve read the golden compass in depth for an essay recently, and it made me x5 times hyped for the tv series. There’s so much to take from! Questions of morality and humour! I just found out Lin-Manuel Miranda is playing LEE! Not too excited about casting choice for mrs. Coulter. I have high hopes for this one, it can’t fail a second time?

When? Filming wrapped in december, so it’s supposed to be out sometime now in 2019

Tv series produced by Amazon Prime and BBC Two, at least 6 episodes, based on the book by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett

I almost forgot Good Omens and that would’ve been bad. I’m so excited for it! Gaiman is heavily involved in the production, which is very promising. American Gods, his other book, has already become such a good tv series, it’s extremly aesthetically pleasing in a way that adds to the story. So I’m having good hopes for this one, especially because of the trailer. David Tennant is cast as the demon Crowley (not that I’ve seen doctor who).

Also I just listened to Neil Gaiman’s recent podcast episode on “Tea with Alice” where Neil talks about criticism of why it hasn’t come out yet (answer: film doesn’t edit itself). Twenty minutes in there’s tears in my eyes as he says how Terry Prachett wanted him to make it so he could watch it before he died, but went too soon, and now Gaiman has taken it on himself as to finish his friends last wish.

When? sometime in 2019

Here’s my review of the book

Tv series produced by Starz, at least 8 episodes, based on book by Daniel O’Malley

I’m terrified of this adaption. Know why? Stephenie Meyer is a producer. One of the castmembers described it as “violent and more sexual”, seemingly putting down the original book a bit as he describes the tv show. The rook is a fantasy book, with characters with weird supernatural powers, which is always a challenge to make work on screen. (This is going to be so bad, I can feel it.) The biggest trouble I think is multiple characters controlled by the same brain – a hivemind. Here’s where I throw my hands in the air and hope the people behind it all know what they are getting into.

When? Imdb claims it should be out in 2019, but there seems to be little updates

Here’s my review of the book

Tv series produced by Hulu, at least 8 episodes, based on book by John Green

As a fan of John Green and vlogbrothers I know it’s been a long road to get “looking for Alaska” adapted, with movie deals falling through. Now we’re finally getting it! The actress cast as Alaska is Kristine Frøseth (norwegian!!), which is surprising because she’s relatively “unknown”, but hopefully goes really well. The biggest problem with adapting this series is if the message of the book being about the problematic sides of a “manic pixie dream girl”, and not being so subtle so it instead seems to promote that concept. This is a well-known problem though, and surely will work out. I think it’s going to be very interesting how they adapt this movie, and what kind of tone they set with it.

When? 2020

American gods will be back for a second season 10. March 2019!

The movie “PS I still love you” comes out probably late 2019. Tt’s the sequel to “To all the boys I’ve loved before” and it’s surely going to be as good as the first one.

A discovery of witches will continue for a second and third season. I enjoyed the first season, but cringed so much, so I hope it gets better.

Movie & TV Adaptations That I’m Terrified Of (Part 1) | Book Things

aquapages // eline3 Comments

I started writing this post and realize there’s SO MANY book adapted movies and tv series coming out this year, along with announced this year, that I’m making this post at least two parts.

Movie and tv series produced by Lionsgate, based on book series by Patrick Rothfuss

I was out of my mind excited when I heard my favourite fantasy books were going to get a tv series, and a movie also which is confusing.

Let’s first look at the movie: Sam Raimi was announced would no longer direct it two months ago, to a mostly relieved reddit crowd it seemed like. The movie will follow the actual kingkiller plot, which is what could be a big hit or miss, depending on how close to the original material they are and if they’re serious about it. Patrick Rothfuss, the author, is heavily involved and also got Lin-Manuel Miranda on the team as a producer, so that’s a relief. I’ve heard Rothfuss quote Lin as “being the chairman of the dont-fuck-it-up committee”, so we’re all nervous here. Also Lin is writing the music, which is a joy!

The tv series will be set a generation before the actual book series, which I have better faith in because there’s no expectation. In summary I’m absolutely terrified and excited about it all.

When? No one knows when production starts, I don’t think the actual script is done either.

Movie produced by Disney, based on the book by Eoin Colfer

This was one of my favourite series as a kid, with the protagonist Artemis Fowl being a rich, criminal mastermind of a kid. He’s always on the edge of being a villain and doing good, and has a butler named Butler who protects him. With fantasy elements like fairy-officers and goblin criminals the movie can turn out really bad. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping they get both the effects and the main character personality and motives right, because that will make or break this film. It’s supposed to be geared towards kids in that there’s humour, but I just hope it hasn’t lost its cleverness. I honestly didn’t get any info or vibe from the trailer, so I’m not certain what to believe.

When? 9. August 2019

Movie produced by Warner Bros & Amazon, based on the book by Donna Tartt

I love this book, but it was very much chaotic and surreal in how fast things develop – going from one place to an entirely different one multiple times – and it’s going to be really interesting to see how they solve that on screen. I’m not so excited about Ansel Elgort as the main character, honestly some of the cast choices makes it feel like they’re going to downplay the craziness of the book and make it boring and average. The synopsis is that “A boy in New York is taken in by a wealthy Upper East Side family after his mother is killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” which is technically true, but even that sounds boring as hell and isn’t really an intro to the whole plot.

When? 11. October 2019

Tv series produced by Netflix, at least 8 episodes, based on the book series by Leigh Bardugo.

Netflix is exciting! I personally didn’t like the shadow and bone series, but the six of crows is included as well in some way. I had hope, then I saw the screenwriter of birdbox is on it and that the two book series would go parallell and interlap in the tv series. No, please, don’t. I’ve seen a lot of negative reactions similiar to mine. I know it was just announced, and they should get a chance, but I’m nervous on their behalf trying to weave two very different and complicated stories together just because it’s placed in the same universe.

When? It was just announced, so no idea

Movie produced by Disney, a remake, but technically based on story from The book of thousand and one nights so that counts 

I like the cartoon Aladdin. Disney haven’t had much luck with getting me to watch the remakes lately. There were a Belle one? The Lion King is coming soon? Freaking Dumbo? The jungle book of 2018 was good, but average. I hadn’t heard about the little mermaid before it popped up on netflix. It has a shockingly low 20% on rotten tomatoes – I got to watch this one now, to see why. I’m honestly more excited for Mulan, after it got its asian cast.

When? 24. May 2019

Do I want to watch Fantastic Beasts 2?

aquapages // eline1 Comment

Visually it seems stunning –

fb.jpg

a bit of background

Harry Potter was a series I loved growing up and still do. I was so quickly immersed in that universe and while it wasn’t these books that got me into fantasy, like with many others, I certainly was introduced to liking the universe as well – memorizing spells and fan theories and non-canon storylines. There were so many talented, and funny, fans that when “Cursed Child” came out I was screaming in horror. What the actual fuck was that plot? It made me lose all trust in more hp content. I don’t think I even did a review, because it was such a mess that I’ve mostly deleted it from my mind. I mean here’s my thoughts on cursed child summed up in something that happened this week –

Friend: “How many hp books are there really?”

Me: “Seven of the main series, and three others about quidditch, fantastic beasts and tales of beedle the bard”

Other hp fan: “Well, actually cursed – ”

Me: “NOPe, not that one.” Lots of glaring. Realising cursed child is basically Voldemort in that it shouldn’t be named.

 

ANyway – back to fantastic beasts

I liked fantastic beasts 1 as a movie. It was set in a different time, which made it less of a “threat” to the original work. I was excited to see the creatures come to life. How it was shot and the cinematics I thought were beautiful, even though it gave me “alice in wonderland” vibes sometimes. The story itself was just boring and bland. 

When I finished the hp series the first time I wanted to know so much more about the characters and the universe. There existed wikis to check for every canon detail, there were as I said before tons of fan-theories and soon the collective imagination gave stories either for the original harry, hermione and ron’s future, their parents generation’s past or plotholes that appeared. J K Rowling has tried to fill every plot-hole in that series since, even the cultural “missings” like diversity. But fans already adopted these characters in so many ways, including writing an asian harry or darker skinned hermione. I do get angry at J K trying when throwing out things like Dumbledore was gay from the start, to write that in with nothing new backing it up. It would’ve been okay to me if the fantastic beasts team decided to write it in this film, making it one of the major points. And I’m kind of interested to see if they do, if they dare take any turns from the original universe and make itself worth being spoken about as its own series.

Someone told me there would be five fantastic beasts films yesterday, while we were discussing this upcoming film. My immediate reaction “they’re trying so hard to grab all the money they can”. The fact is that with the budget and the available talent these movies should be great! I think they’re too limited in chances they’re willing to take and creative space they’re willing to lend to writers, because I’m seeing little interesting (from the first movie at least). I do want to watch it – to see if this one is better – but it feels like I’m setting myself up for failure here.

These movies are too early for playing on nostalgia (like star wars reboot does for many) and too late for being a natural extension of the harry potter universe, giving answers fans like me wanted at that time and filling the hole it left after it was finished. Still don’t know if I should see Fantastic Beast. My friend listened to most of this and concluded that she still wanted more of the hp universe. I’m not so sure.