J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World by Bonnie Burton

This deer (a CG Bambi that can spot leadership potential a mile away) replaces such riveting plot forces as a cursed woman slowly becoming a full-time snake and a bunch of nonsense surrounding the identity of Ezra Miller’s character. If you’ve seen it, you can probably hear Dennis the peasant (though he’d hate to be defined as such) on his rant: “Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.” This absurdity, taken quite seriously, is the crux of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, only with the Lady of the Lake replaced by a magical, all-knowing deer doling out the divine mandate. There’s a bit in Monty Python and the Holy Grail pointing out that the way Arthur became King doesn’t make a lick of sense. Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Callum Turner, Jessica Wilgram, Mads Mikkelsen Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore Year: 2022 In honor of this, we dove into Rowling’s cinematic oeuvre, putting on our own critical Sorting Hat to see which films hold up and where the most recent contributions fit into this franchise’s ever-changing (for the worse) legacy. Ten years ago, the final film in the main HP storyline ( Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Part 2) hit theaters, giving fans what they thought was some closure to Rowling’s tale of witchcraft and wizardry…until, of course, she decided to write a new series of movies based around that lil’ magical guy we all know(?) and love(?), Newt Scamander. That heady mix of real-world volatility and adolescent power fantasy resulted in over $9 billion dollars in worldwide receipts. evil, The Boy Who Lived assumed a renewed degree of relevance in the wake of a political regime proud of its unsubtle ties to racism and white supremacy…and a creator that couldn’t stop tweeting her bad opinions. It’s a series that grew up with its readers, and the same can certainly be said for its film translations, that’s releases span two decades. Rowling’s Harry Potter epic is a thematic Trojan Horse: What starts as an innocent tale of magic and empowerment sheds its exterior to comment on the abrasive social plagues of racism and totalitarian politics.

J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World by Bonnie Burton