Why didn't people go see "Fantastic Beasts"?

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

Well, when compared to its most obvious contemporary - Star Wars: Rogue One - the biggest difference I can divine is that while Rogue One is essentially telling a story we can broadly infer and know will succeed it was at least an important, nay pivotal, event that has enough meat to tell a decent story of its own.

Fantastic Beasts (which I'll throw my hands up to not having seen) on the other hand has only a tangential connection to the broader Harry Potter story. A movie about Dumbledore and Grindelwald or the original Order of the Phoenix that ends with the death of James and Lily Potter would probably have been better received.

 

[Creator002]

Am I the only one who felt like the movie was like an episode of Doctor Who?

Ha ha. As soon as I heard Newt's accent, I couldn't get Matt Smith out of my head. Doesn't help he looks like him a little too.

OT: I enjoyed it. To be fair, I didn't see it completely sober (spur of the moment decision to see it). I do need to watch it again though, as I only remember enjoying it.

 

[Quellist]

No clue myself, as soon as i saw the visuals i fell in love with it. Then Eddie Redmayne and Colin Farrell being in the movie sealed the deal. Thorougly enjoyed it with no regrets...well except that we won't see any more of Farrell's character in the sequels because Johnny Depp

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Well, it has the Hobbit feel of making a single book (and this case its not even a real book) into five Goddamn movies. That's not to say I don't like the premise of Fantastic Beats.

It also doesn't throw around the fact that it's a Harry Potter universe movie, so casual fans don't know what it is.

And lastly, it simply wasn't a very good movie. It was okay, but not anything amazing. Some cool stuff with a lot of bore. It's not something I see myself watching again.

 

[Jupiter178]

Wow. Two pages of people trying to answer a question with a false premise.

Fantastic Beasts grossed $814 million worldwide. That's more than Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (admittedly before adjusting for inflation). It was the #8 highest-grossing movie of 2016. It's already got a whole bunch of sequels planned. It was a huge success.

"Fact remains that it was the worst-grossing Harry Potter movie ever."

It wasn't a Harry Potter movie. That's like saying "why didn't anyone go and see Guardians of the Galaxy? Sure, lots of people went to see it, but fact remains that it's the worst-grossing Avengers movie ever."

*facepalm*

 

[kasperbbs]

Harry Potter had a huge following and this series does not. And the movie wasn't so great, personally i don't think that i will ever want to see it again.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Probably because the idea of basing a moving off of a text book doesn't sound that interesting.

Also, ya, it really was kind of bad IMO. I went to see it for the fantastic beasts part, but in all honestly, that part of the plot ended up feeling like pointless filler for the real story. I genuinely started to get quite bored with the whole thing before making it to the third act.

 

[PurplePonyArcade]

I enjoyed it, a little. I was stuck between that and Stars Wars and since the last Star Wars film was a load of boring nostalgia wank I went for the former. That alone amazes me since I really do not like watching movies most of the time. It was worth the other person paying even if Rouge One apparently might have been worth my time. That last part is hard to say since many of the same people also liked The Force Awakens so many of those people apparently like showers of nostalgic jizz in their face constantly as well.

 

[Veylon]

Wow. Two pages of people trying to answer a question with a false premise.

Fantastic Beasts grossed $814 million worldwide. That's more than Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (admittedly before adjusting for inflation). It was the #8 highest-grossing movie of 2016. It's already got a whole bunch of sequels planned. It was a huge success.

It wasn't a Harry Potter movie. That's like saying "why didn't anyone go and see Guardians of the Galaxy? Sure, lots of people went to see it, but fact remains that it's the worst-grossing Avengers movie ever."

*facepalm*

Speaking of the Avengers, Fantastic Beasts grossed a hundred and fifty million more than Dr. Strange despite coming out a couple weeks later. Suicide Squad - the other big "failure" - is right between the two.

 

[Jeyl]

I'll give you my one and only reason. Eddie Redmayne. I never cared for his acting and there's just something about his face that I don't like. I can't explain why, but I know it's there.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I'll give you my one and only reason. Eddie Redmayne. I never cared for his acting and there's just something about his face that I don't like. I can't explain why, but I know it's there.

Is it how his mouth never moves? Or his whole face in general.

It's the same for me with the dude who played the loser squib guy. The one who is playing the Flash in the DCEU. His face is just too weird, especially when Barry Allen has such a generic face in the comics.

 

[AD-Stu]

I don't think they did a very good job of marketing it as anything other than "It's a movie in the Harry Potter world that doesn't have Harry Potter". Now... I think the Harry Potter world was beautifully realised and everything, but it was the characters and the stories that made me interested in the main books and movies. I didn't see anything to grab me in the Fantastic Beasts previews.

 

[westcoast1313]

I have an aversion to anything with the word Fantastic in the title, especially when it comes to movies. Thanks for that Fantastic Four movies. Also i was never really into Harry Potter. I was more of a Lord Of The Rings kind of guy.

 

[Silent Protagonist]

I saw that movie and it actually killed a lot of the love I had for the series, mainly from reading the books as a kid but still. It wasn't because the movie was a cash grab or whatever, but because it made me realize Rowling is not a very smart person or even all that good of a writer. That sounds horrible now that I look at it but I'm not trying to say that you need to be intelligent to be a good storyteller or creative, so let me explain. I never idolized Rowling or even assumed she was particularly smart, but her superficial understanding of the underlying mechanics of how and why things work, including fictitious things she herself invented, has gone from creating the occasional plot hole or funny little inconsistency to being completely world breaking. She has no sense of the practicality or potential applications of the various fantastical elements she introduces, and so by extension neither do any of her characters. The problem was always there, it's just that this particular movie finally broke the shaky foundation. It also probably didn't help that while I am realizing all this I am hit with the masturbatory "I'm not smart enough to make all of this up" line. That's a real quick way to make something cross the line from "none of this makes sense but it's still a fun ride" to "this is stupid and you're stupid and everyone who likes it is stupid." Though I was able to come up with a sort of head canon/fan theory thing that saves it a little by explaining why the wizards have no apparent capacity for innovation/invention.

tl;dr Muggles were able to take the mechanic of an on/off switch and turn it into a computer. Wizards are able to fit an entire zoo weightlessly inside an easily transportable briefcase and teleport around the world and have million other crazy abilities, but can't think of any way these abilities might be useful so they live in hiding and fear of the muggles.

 

[pookie101]

Because I don't care about anything Harry Potter related to be perfectly honest with you.

*high five*

we are an endangered species these days and need to stay the course

 

[RunsWithBears]

Thought it was a great movie.
Great characters, quirky, likable, believable.
Interesting story, with plenty of drama and enjoyable plot twists.
Moody, authentic atmosphere.

Eventhough I read some of the books when I was a kid, I became thoroughly disinterested with the Harry Potter franchise.
Fantastic Beasts was fresh. The desperate break the franchise needed to appeal to maturer audiences.

 

[Elijin]

I cant speak globally, but in my local market there was not a single piece of advertising or marketing that connected this to the harry potter universe. They relied 100% on the die hard fans to do all the work for them via word of mouth. Problem being its been years since harry potter was front and center in pop culture, so it just slipped on by.


It almost felt like they very deliberately were not trying to be associated with harry potter.