We saw the new Fantastic Beasts movie tonight - NO SPOILERS

Caught the last showing, and I think we picked the right night as we had the theater to ourselves!

I have taken to avoiding movie reviews for the most part. I can't avoid review headlines, and they've been largely negative. And I honestly don't see why. We both thought it was a pretty good movie. No, it wasn't the largely groundbreaking first movie - because the first movie broke that ground. DUH. Regardless, it had a good story, we got to see 1920s Paris, and it had lots of clever stuff in it.

After it was over, I asked my wife how many movies the series was supposed to be. I don't know whether or not she was joking when she said twelve. My thought was four felt about right. I looked it up on Wikipedia and originally it was planned for three but they're now going to go for five, and that feels comfortable for me.

In tone, it feels like one of the darker Harry Potter movies, and that's fine AFAIK. You know they have to have a 'rising of the Big Bad', otherwise they have no conflict in the future. They pull it off quite well, and no more shall be said about that.

Anyway, don't let the reviews hold you back: if you like the Potterverse or the first movie, definitely see this one. It's worth your time and money.

In other movie news....

My wife worked Sunday and Monday, which means I dug into my Movies To Watch list. Among them was the 2008 visual effects overload by the Wachowskis, Speed Racer. While digging into the IMDB entry for the film, I came across some very sad news: the Wachowskis are closing their Chicago office! Basically they don't have anything production and nothing coming down the pipeline, and keeping the office open just isn't viable right now. Very sad. It's pretty big and includes a 36 seat movie theater and a half court basketball court and is listed for $5mill, far under what it cost to buy and renovate.

https://www.indiewire.com/2018/10/wachowskis-closing-production-offices-no-projects-development-1202015170/


In other news, next August (as currently scheduled) we'll be seeing a new series on the big screen: Kenneth Branaugh is bringing us the first book of Eoin Colfer's eight book series Artemis Fowl. I was not familiar with the series, aside from understanding that it's quite popular YA lit. Dame Judy is cast as Commander Root, the head of the Lower Elements Police, and the initial trailer - included in the link - looks quite good.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/11/criminal-boy-genius-takes-on-world-of-fairies-in-new-artemis-fowl-trailer/

Came across an interesting bit of Queen trivia on Wikipedia yesterday

Queen the British rock band, not the monarchy.

"Since Queen had named their albums A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races after two of the Marx Brothers' most popular films, surviving brother Groucho Marx invited Queen to visit him at his Los Angeles home in March 1977 (five months before he died). The band thanked him, and performed "'39" a cappella.[9]"

Wow. I've always thought Groucho was an amazing wit, but I think that's pretty awesome.

The song '39 has always been one of my favorite Queen numbers, partly because acoustic guitar dominates but also because it has an astrophysics reference in it, and at that time - 1975 - that was unheard of.