My mom and I are huge Harry Potter fans. So is my aunt, but she wasn't with us when we saw the movie so this is just about us.
So us two fangirls go to the 3D screening of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them over Thanksgiving break. It was around 10pm so I thought there would be a ton of people there, but when we walked into the theater, it was completely empty. We sit right in the middle row in the middle seats and wait for the movie to start. We talk about how good the movie looked from the trailers we saw and how adorable Eddie Resmayne is. But we also had our doubts. We had been watching and reading and listening to the audiobooks of Harry Potter for almost a decade and didn't know how well the spinoff of our favorite franchise would do. One of my favorite parts of the Harry Potter universe is the creatures, so I was excited to see what this movie had to introduce nevertheless.
Right as the upcoming movie trailers started, a couple walked in and sat towards the top of the theater. I kind of shrank a bit, upset that I now had to contain myself and my fangirlish outbursts.
The first thing about this movie that made my little imaginary light bulb spark was the woman talking about how witches were real and damnation, all that fun stuff. Then Credence (as he would later be introduced) appeared, passing out fliers, looking very uncomfortable. My mother and I immediately turned to each other and said: "So he's a wizard". We've always been pretty good at spotting hints at the plot early on in a story line. (You should see me watch Black Mirror)
The movie progresses and we see Jacob Kowalski, played by the charming Dan Fogler, introduced as the American muggle, or no-maj. Jacob provides a link between the audience and this fictitious universe, because who wouldn't be stunned speechless when faced with an errumpant?! I believe it was during this scene when one of the movie theater employees walked in with their glow stick and stood in the corner. I rolled my eyes to my mom, knowing the employee was probably in there because we were being loud. But when they saw that the theater was completely empty except for the two of us, they left.
So, as we meet more and more of Newt's creatures, my mother and I just stare wide-eyed at the screen. Then, the obscurus is introduced and it is explained how no child over 10 has been known to survive its power because when one suppresses their magic, it festers and becomes wildly destructive. In the scene where Mary Lou (crazy anti-witch mom of a billion hate minions) goes to try and convince the government that wizards and witches exist, the frequent cuts to Modesty, a young girl, made me feel like she was the obscrurial. She matched the criteria. Young, reserved, anxious like she had a secret. As if her singing a song about how her mother would burn all witches wasn’t spooky enough, now she was a crazy powerful demon child?! We later see Credence find a wand under her bed and she claims it's a toy, but we know she is a witch. But in that moment, my mother and I realize if she had a wand then the magic couldn't be suppressed, so she couldn't be the obscurial. This is when my mother says, “Newt said there had never been a known obscurial over 10.” I threw my hands up in the air. Of course that’s how the story played out. It’s always the exception that comes and destroys everyone.
THE SCENE WHERE GRAVES AND CREEDENCE ARE LOOKING FOR MODESTY...
Graves tells Credence he's useless for not thinking Modesty was the obsurial, but then we realize she is hiding from Credence because she watched him go full obsurus on Mary Lou and kill her. Credence knocks the walls down and Graves is so spooked because he just insulted the most dangerous magical creature he has ever heard of. Everything about this scene was so horror movie-esque but I loved it
. The line that made my skin crawl in the best way was when Graves tells credence he can control it, and Credence says, "I don't think I want to". My mother and I sat straight up at this line as Credence burst into the obscurus.Post destructive rampage, when Credence is destroyed, one of the most wonderful things happened. Graves is revealed to be Grindelwald. As soon as he began to rebel I knew exactly what was up. The beautiful, albino Johnny Depp as Grindelwald was born and I loved everything about it. (Throwback to Barty Crouch Jr. in The Goblet of Fire, am I right?) All in all, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was one of the best movies I've seen all year. It was light and funny in some places, dark and spooky in others, and incredibly heart-warming in the end. I can't wait to see how the series progresses and look forward to sitting through it with my nerdy mother beside me to help find every hint.
