Although Rowling's "Harry Potter" series is a teenage story, it also has a very dark core to some extent. No need to dwell on the stories of death, torture, and betrayal—the misty nights on Privet Drive used to terrify me in elementary school. But on the other hand, I will be attracted by its mystery and unknown. That's probably the charm of Rowling's story.
The opening chapter of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald made me feel a little bit back at the time (the first one didn't): New York in the storm was spooky and terrifying, with lightning and thunder, the pole where the Magical Congress of the United States was located. At the top of the Gothic-style Woolworth Building (the tallest building in the world in 1927), a six-wheeled Thestral prison car quietly took off under the escort of many broom-riding Aurors. Imprisoned in the prison van is the notorious dark wizard, Gellert Grindelwald. The audience is involuntarily drawn to this dangerous, tense atmosphere. Next, under the heavy guards, Grindelwald completed an extremely high-profile high-altitude prison escape and disappeared without a trace. Although predictable, it is beautiful enough.
It's a pity that the rest of the story moves into an extremely banal multi-line narrative rhythm that's a bit confusing - is this movie about Fantastic Beasts, or Credence's origins, or Greene Devore's crime? Although the movie is called "Fantastic Beasts", the existence of the line of Fantastic Beasts has become weaker and weaker, and it has gradually become a title. Rowling's grasp of the bright and dark lines of Fantastic Beasts and Grindelwald is obviously not as good as her grasp of the single-episode story lines and Voldemort's dark lines in the "Harry Potter" series. This somewhat tedious situation changes when the final climax comes—a secret is revealed, a war breaks out, and we finally get the message that the film is trying to convey.
In fact, each single story in Rowling's "Harry Potter" series has always lacked more intense and twists and turns before reaching the final reversal and climax. Mainly (except the last one), but she attracts readers in several other ways: the first is the continuous expansion of the British wizarding world, such as Gringotts in the first book, the elf in the second book, and the knight in the third book. The bus; the second is the excavation of the colorful life at Hogwarts, such as the opening dinner, Quidditch class, the Triwizard Tournament, etc., and the hidden secrets of the school are constantly being uncovered; and finally the overall story. The super-strong grasp of the direction, that is, the so-called "grass snake and gray line, and the pulse is thousands of miles", after the overall story is halfway through, it gradually makes people stunned.
The "Fantastic Beasts" series is still written by Rowling. Judging from the two films currently available, Rowling's above-mentioned strengths have not been played as well as in the past. If "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" is still relatively new to the American wizarding world, then the "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" in this book is basically boring. Anyway, every country has a place similar to Diagon Alley in England, and a place similar to the British Ministry of Magic.
In the "Harry Potter" series, we see how Rowling closely integrates the wizarding world with the real world - the wizarding world has its own political system, education system, public transportation, sports, media entertainment, etc. And so on; and the "Fantastic Beasts" series is committed to the close integration of magical history and real history. For example, in the background story of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", the establishment of the Magical Congress of the United States in the magical world is derived from the real world. The Witch Trials. But sadly, perhaps the real world of 1926 and 1927 lacked major historical events, and we haven't been able to witness any clever combination in the two "Fantastic Beasts" movies. But this situation should change in the next three movies, because World War II has been glimpsed in "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald", and Dumbledore and Grindelwald's peak duel also happened at the end of World War II. In 1945, I believe we can see more ingenious combination of magical history and real history after that.
In addition, the biggest fun is probably to find the Easter eggs that are scattered around the "Harry Potter" series, such as when the largest Easter egg in the whole film - Hogg with the melodious Hedwig theme song Memories flooded in when Watts showed up—and it was still exciting.
At the climax of the whole film, a secret about the three families is revealed - no spoilers here, I'm more concerned about Grindelwald's final villain manifesto, which embodies Greene. DeVo's good qualities as an idealistic villain make him more to my liking than Earth Demon (seems a bit perverted, so to speak?).
The "Harry Potter" villain of Voldemort is classic enough, but despite Rowling's tragic origin story, most of the time the villain's behavior is still the most pop culture villain setting. The common one - we may be able to apply the "Dungeons and Dragons" camp Jiugongge to call it neutral evil. This type of villain usually has a clear self-interested purpose (usually the pursuit of absolute power), and will sacrifice anyone for it, even family and friends. In addition to his magical powers so powerful that people don't even dare to mention his name, Voldemort is a arrogant megalomaniac. He is like an uneducated boy who has acquired weapons of mass destruction and plays as he likes. . It's no wonder that the social road is getting narrower and narrower.
In the "Harry Potter" novels, Grindelwald's first appearance is when he dies, but his aura completely overwhelms Voldemort. "There are a lot of things you don't understand...you won't win..." Although the movie has changed this episode beyond recognition, we can still see the gap between the two generations of villains through the novel - the black devil who shook the world, in Green In front of DeVo, the little boy who didn't understand anything changed back. Not only does he not understand love, but he also understands the human heart.
Grindelwald, on the contrary, is so understanding of people's hearts that with a three-inch tongue, he makes people fascinated. He described a grand vision for his followers: wizards would no longer be an oppressed minority, but instead become masters of the world. And a more imminent crisis is coming soon - while the magical society can only progress by the advancement of the magic power of individual wizards, the technology of the Muggle world is advancing with each passing day, and the power of magic is insignificant in the face of the atomic bomb. The Avada Sorceress requires a lot of mana to support it, but a child of a few years old can pull the trigger of a pistol. Muggles will destroy themselves in World War II, and by the way, the wizarding world. Perhaps, Grindelwald saw it as his responsibility to preserve the wizard's blood. We can put him in the lawful evil camp - people who are not selfish and stick to their own standards of behavior, regardless of whether it hurts others or not. Grindelwald's mantra "For the greater good" is the best interpretation of his beliefs.
When it comes to Muggle issues, Voldemort will kill Muggles at will, but Grindelwald will not. He does only the necessary killings, and has a sophisticated plan for the role of Muggles in the future social system - livestock (so I kind of don't understand how Queenie got mesmerized by him, even in Grindelwald's vision Wizards are indeed free, but they can't marry livestock). The society designed by Grindelwald is efficient and precise, but also ruthless. Such a society is reminiscent of Nazi Germany, and Grindelwald is also quite similar to Hitler. The black veil of Paris is my favorite scene in the whole film, and it also reminds me of the real world Nuremberg in 1938, full of Nazi flags.
Grindelwald can be called an idealistic villain, such a villain is gradually becoming the mainstream of current popular culture. From the social activist Grindelwald who upholds the "wizard first", to Thanos, the theoretician who mastered Malthusian population theory, to Darth Vader, the gravedigger of the big bourgeoisie and decadent academic clan, these were created in the last The characters of the century have taken on a whole new meaning in the last decade - they reflect the creator's fear that their alienated society might breed self-destructive forces. Grindelwald, in particular, whose "Witcher First" approach sounds uncompromising today is a reflection of the fact that we are, to some extent, retracing the old ways of decades ago.
In the stories of the last century - the "Lord of the Rings" series, the "Wheel of Time" series, the "Harry Potter" series, the "Star Wars" series, and the early Marvel and DC series, heroes and Villains are always good and evil; but in this day and age, villains are becoming more like heroes, and heroes are becoming more like villains, which is an interesting phenomenon. Perhaps our reality is becoming so cruel that characters in fictional stories have to be thrown into some difficult circumstances and make tough choices.
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