Mini-reviews: Rogue One and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

The two fictional series that I enjoy the most are the Star Wars and Harry Potter universes. Recently, both of these universes were expanded upon by the release of a movie that lies outside the original narrative. I watched both of these movies in the same week recently, and have written some of my thoughts here.

Rogue one was an interesting visit to the Star Wars universe. The best part of the movie is the big fight at the end. It was loads of fun to see the rebel forces with all the classic ships in a big battle against the Empire in a scale that was not possible in the original movie. However, the build-up to the big fight at the end was not nearly as interesting. Unlike The Force Awakens, I was not that interested in the new characters introduced this time around. Also, the situations that lead up to the final battle were just not nearly as exciting as the norm established by George Lucas with the original trilogies.

It is also true that the movie lacks some suspense because it is a prequel and the viewer knows exactly where everything is heading. The writers tried to work around this with the introduction of the new characters, bu, as I said above, I did not find them overly interesting. I also did not like the idea that a flaw was built into the Death Star. This is unnecessary and makes the effort by the rebels technicians to find a weakness in the original movie seem less heroic.

Finally, I'd like to note that I am more interested new tales that take the Star Wars Universe into new territory than stories that fill in gaps that don't really need to be filled in the existing Canon. This movie was really unnecessary. But it was fun, and I'll give the creators involved credit for that much.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is not really a prequel even though it occurs before the original Harry Potter series, because this was a totally different tale with a totally different villains and heroes that are not related to the original cast of the Harry Potter book series. In this case we know very little about the new characters and I really did like the characters introduced in the film.

The plot kept the story moving and interesting and I found it hard to predict where things were going. The magic used in a movie was fun, especially since this shows magic interacting with the "real world" as opposed to the books which primarily take place in the Wizarding World.

One of the aspects of the Harry Potter books that I enjoy the most is the big reveal moment that occurs for the end of the story. In this movie there are two reveals concerning who is the threat to the main characters. I really enjoyed and was surprised by the reveal of the identity of the person whose magic was killing non-magical people. The other villain reveal was a little more obvious and more extreme than necessary. All the character had to be was a sympathizer and not the actual big-name villain of this era of the Harry Potter world and I think it would have been just as effective but less coincidental.

I hope to see more in the Harry Potter universe including a follow-up to this movie so we can visit with these characters again and see where life takes them. Besides, I do tend to love period works, so historical fiction of this type is right up my alley!

Well, that's my commentary for now. I'll be back with more later!