Search found 1 match: Mariah Carey

Let's take a trip back to 2001, because it was an awkward year for the box office. It may not have been bad, but for most of the year, we had been continuing these odd trends that we had trouble breaking. I can name many reasons that 2001 was strange. 1) Subpar romantic comedies had quite an audience, with America's Sweethearts, The Wedding Planner, and Kate & Leopold raking in a lot of money. 2) We were quite content to give our money to sequels that we were afraid to admit were awful at worst or mediocre at best (unless it was Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles). 3) Tom Green horrified audiences with bad comedy. 4) Hollywood producers had no idea how to reboot old movie franchises such as Planet of the Apes, as well as classic shows like Josie and the Pussycats. 5) Mariah Carey made the transition from pop star to movie star in the most disastrous fashion. And 6) The public had yet to realize that spoof comedies were the biggest waste of $10 possible. I can go on and on about it, but these 6 pointers are enough to tell you that 2001 was an awkward year for the box office.

So to put the long story short, the timing couldn't be perfect for Warner Bros. to release Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in November of that year. Based on the children's fantasy novel by JK Rowling, the movie charmed audiences everywhere with a young hero and his faithful companions battling evil forces at a wizard school. On its opening weekend, it raked in $90,294,621, which was the highest at the time. The moment proved to be a game-changer for the movie industry. Hollywood was able to capitalize on the idea of franchises based off of fantasy novels one month later when they began putting out The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Marvel stepped up its game by the time 2002 came along and put out record-breaking superhero movies that would create their own cinematic universe, movie studios began to be more careful with the source material and started putting out challenging ways we looked at familiar stories like Star Trek and The Lego Movie, comedies from the likes of Judd Apatow began to push spoof movies out of the box office playground, and aging franchises were able to take a couple of years off, fix the problems they were encountering, and come back better than ever.

Meanwhile, the Harry Potter franchise grew into a massive fan universe that consisted of 7 books, 8 movies, and a few established theme park areas. And you can say that I am one of those Harry Potter fans. Yeah, I'm not an overly obsessed Harry Potter fan like all of my other friends and any other millennial that you might encounter on social media. I just consider myself a casual fan that likes to go with the flow. I will tell you that I enjoyed each movie, a few of which are some of my all-time favorite movies. Even though JK Rowling ended the book franchise in 2007 and then concluded the film franchise in 2011, she somehow hasn't exactly stepped away from the Harry Potter stories, rather expanded on them to create a wizarding world. She started publishing short stories that tie into that universe on a website called Pottermore, she created a post-franchise sequel for Broadway titled Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and now, she's gotten involved in a prequel series called Fantastic Beasts. Instead of trying to rush out novels for screenwriters to try to adapt for the big screen, she's providing these original screenplays on her own, and she's also brought in David Yates, who directed the last 4 Harry Potter films, for this first movie of the prequel series. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them takes place 75 years before the first movie, and it centers around Newt Scalmander (played by Academy Award-winner Eddie Redmayne) carrying around a case of magical creatures in New York City. Along the way, trouble starts brewing after a few of them escape, and it threatens the balance of the magical and non-magical relations.

There are actually very little connections between this and the Harry Potter films that are evident. The only real connection is Hogwarts, where Newt was once thrown out of after an unfortunate circumstance. It actually tries to establish its own story, so Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them may look like a Harry Potter film, but it doesn't feel like an actual Harry Potter film. And you know what, that's not a bad thing. This movie successfully comes up with an original story from scratch, only using a few resources from the preceding source material. JK Rowling gives us new characters, settings and storylines for us to connect with. On top of that, the production value keeps the magic of the Harry Potter movies, updating it to keep up with the five-year gap between this movie and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. The CGI especially creates some scene-stealing creatures that capture our attention immediately. And last but not least, the actors bring a certain charm to each of the new characters. Eddie Redmayne makes the perfect protagonist for Newt Scalmander. Colin Farrell serves as one of the appealing antagonists, playing Perceival Graves. Ezra Miller also plays a convincing antagonist as the young Credence. But perhaps the best performer is, surprisingly, Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski, who balances out the comic relief with some very serious moments.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them can never top the best of the Harry Potter films, but it doesn't need to. It already serves as a pretty good standalone film that expands JK Rowling's wizarding world. With compelling characters, magical special effects, and an intriguing story, this movie will certainly have fans wanting more for the next couple of years as long as it continues to charm everyone.

Score: 83/100

Recommendation: Any fans of Harry Potter and the wizarding world that connects them together.