Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

This movie requires you to cast a spell of your own: [waves wand] “Explainitous!” Really, it’s hard to know what is going on in much of the first quarter to a third of this movie. The production seems to rely on the audience being so deeply invested in the wizarding world that they will instantly know who everyone is and what they are doing without any particular explanation. Alas, some of us actually have lives, and have not seen the previous installment in a few years, so a lot of the early scenes inspire head-scratching by the rest of us. The story improves in the clarity department as it unfolds, but it does not necessarily do so in terms of being interesting or clever. The overall tale is a muddle, and that’s not helped by a quantity of ham-handed metaphors for real life situations both historical and present day. Some of the magical effects are clever and entertaining, but there are also scenes where the viewer anticipates certain visuals that never come to fruition. Imagination is supposed to be the core quality of this franchise, so it’s not a good sign when the audience is out-imagining the filmmakers. I was overly harsh about the original series and its installments, so I feel uncertain about truly laying into this outing in the franchise’s adjunct storyline. Maybe I just don’t get it, or I’m too old, or who knows? But I can’t bring myself to recommend a movie that comes across as so disjointed, and poorly conceived, and—and this is the same complaint I have about the later outings in the core story—just not all that much fun. Come on, people—enough is enough. 

The Flash

Hey, that was actually...fun. Who’d have thunk it? Unlike other entries in the DC paradigm, this one doesn’t take itself too seriously, delivers some actual laughs along with the requisite mayhem, and interjects just enough but not too much pathos to give the proceedings a sense of being meaningful without going overboard—this being a comic book movie, after all. Ezra Miller, he of the interesting off-hours amusements, keeps himself in check here just enough pull off playing the titular lead without letting his generation AA persona get overly annoying in the process. It’s close in certain moments, but the kid never entirely goes over the cliff. And he gets just enough help from his co-stars—particularly Michael Keaton, crusading once more—to deliver a story that is lively, enjoyable, and—for a franchise pic—surprisingly self-contained. The film is hardly flawless; the denouement seems to wrap up a bit too quickly and cleanly, and the absence of certain characters/actors looks like a case of special pleading. On the other hand, the story does deliver a rather clever doorway out of the franchise for certain other actors. Maybe, if these DC guys keep hammering away at it, they just might figure out the formula (especially since that other studio seems to be spinning its wheels at the moment). This entry appears to be a quick step in that direction; it remains to be seen if it can truly provide the crucial spark, the—dare we say it—key flash of ingenuity that will finally lift this cinematic project up into truly competitive heights. Either way, there’s enough here to make this one entry worth a look. Give it a bit of your time—and be quick about it.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

This movie is not an interesting failure, but its failure does include one interesting element, or at least one interesting moment. It comes late in the proceedings, when--ever so briefly--a provocative point is raised, one that could conceivably turn the entire story on its head. But then they just settle for the light show, and all that goes by the board. Which is par for this course; the entire rest of the movie is a muddle, hard to grasp what's really going on, why it matters, where it fits in the (one assumes) larger scheme. And the ultimate payoff comes across mostly as a "huh?" Rowling does not seem to have the big picture figured out (she's listed as the writer, so this really falls at her feet). An empress who has no clothes should probably know when to duck indoors, and based on this effort, one has to say now would be the time. Enchantment lifted, for sure.

Justice League

I've generally been more on board with the DC stuff than Marvel's overwhelming orgy of comic book movies; they've generally been more grown-up in feel and more realistic in presentation (realistic being a relative term). So I'm not one to jump on the bashing boat just for the sake of piling on. Then again, it's clear that this entry in the largely Batman-driven movieverse is not quite up to snuff. The villain seems to have come out of nowhere, and has little anti-appeal. The proceedings follow a template that's well-worn by now, particularly in "get them together" flicks, up to and including the over-the-top violent ending. What saves this movie is the presence of a large number of likeable actors; the female triumvirate of Gadot-Adams-Lane alone builds a lot of goodwill. Besides, it's an Entertainment with a capital 'E'--not really trying to be anything else, and thus you're seriously off-kilter if you don't enjoy this thing at least a little bit. Not great, but nothing to be ashamed of. Mellow out.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The funny thing about watching a movie about being in high school is that you can't really tell how authentic it is, because your perception of what's being presented is colored by your own experiences within that very same scene. This pitfall opens especially wide when the movie in question depicts being in high school during a timeframe when you actually were in high school. So it is with me and this movie. A lot of what I saw here rings true, given my contemporaneous memories. Then again, I don’t inhabit that world where everyone was molested, so I can’t speak to that side of the equation. Mostly, the strength of this film lies in likeable characters who make your time with them charming enough so that you really care about what happens to them. So if you make the extra effort to judge this flick and its characters on their own terms, I think you ultimately will come out ahead.