Did you know the Smithsonian Institute museums have IMAX theaters? Because I didn't. Then I saw an event on Facebook about a speakeasy-themed reception and showing of the new Fantastic Beasts movie at the Museum of American History. I almost never go into DC but for this, I made an exception. I bought a flapper dress and a new wig and Tyler put a Slytherin robe over his regular clothes and away we went.The reception itself was great, minus a drinks line that was way too long but free. There were themed cocktails, a DJ, photo backdrops from the movie, snacks, a henna artist, and so many people in their finest '20s garb. Everybody was friendly and mingling, and it was only a little weird that we had to keep circling around the Batmobile in the center of the floor. (Which sparked the discussion of which Harry Potter house Batman would be sorted into. Tyler says Slytherin but he says that for everyone. I say Ravenclaw because research is Batman's middle name.)
I wish I could say the movie was half as fun as the party. There were a couple of extraneous factors against it like it was only in 3D, which I hate in general, and I was seeing it in a room of rabid Potterheads. You know how I feel about fandoms I'm not generally a part of, unless you don't in which case, I don't like it.
Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) just wants to collect and study his creatures but the Ministry of Magic keeps trying to recruit him to go after Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller), the Obscurial that almost destroyed New York City in the last movie. Credence is hiding out in a magical circus in Paris while also trying to find his real family. Newt is not interested until he learns that Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) is assigned to look for him. Meanwhile, Gellert Gridlewald (Johnny Depp) has escaped from custody and is also looking for Credence because the boy's power will be very helpful to him in establishing a wizards-only world order.
This very much felt like it was just a filler episode to set up for the big showdown that is coming between Good Guys and Bad Guys. The story felt pretty rushed and also like it was relying on the audience to fill in the gaps on what was supposed to be happening themselves. That seems like lazy writing to me, but I'm not a superfan. None of the other audience people seemed to have the least concern following the plot or picking out the details so maybe that's just my outsider-ness showing. I have read a few reviews/think pieces pointing out some of the inconsistencies in the timeline or noting that the female characters get short-changed here and that last point I can absolutely agree with. Tina and her sister Queenie (Alison Sudol) were vital to the first movie but are given so little to do in this one, you almost wonder why they're there at all. Tina spends 90% of the time giving Newt a cold shoulder because of a newspaper typo linking him to marry Leta Lestrange (Zoe Kravitz) (who spends most of the movie wringing her hands and looking beautifully sad) and Queenie falls off the fucking deep end, bespelling Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), the adorable muggle, into wanting to marry her.
Personally, I would have liked to see more interaction between Newt and his brother, Theseus (Callum Turner). I didn't really care about the love triangle between them and Leta but I would have liked to know more about their internal dynamics. I really enjoyed the first Fantastic Beasts but this one really seems like it's for die-hard fans only. I heard this is planned to be a 5-movie set so hopefully the next iteration is more inclusive.
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