This year’s VGSA BME movie night at LA Live was a success once again. VGSA provided free tickets for the first 10-15 students who signed up and luckily my friends and I made the cut. We saw Fantastic Beasts (and where to find them), the Harry Potter prequel. It had amazing cinematography, a good storyline, and quirky characters! The movie catered to Harry Potter diehard fans and Harry Potter casual viewers (me). Although I didn’t get the little references to owls, wands, and other special creatures from the Harry Potter stories that my friends were excited about, I still enjoyed the movie.
It was about Newt Scamander, the author of the Fantastic Beasts textbook Harry uses in his classes, traveling to New York in the 1920s and accidentally releasing some of the fantastic beasts about whom he was writing. Even watching the standard version of the movie (not 3D), the special effects scared us at times and the wraiths were positively chilling. I wish they had gone deeper into developing the characters though instead of focusing mainly on the action and the beasts. There weren’t any overt, obvious connections to Harry Potter, which was both a good and bad thing. Good because the movie stands on its own, and bad because it made it harder to connect to the new characters being introduced.
The acting was great and if you haven’t seen it, I recommend watching the last few scenes closely for a surprise appearance. Of course, you can also Google it and spoil your own surprise =)
Some of us roamed around LA Live after the movie and grabbed a bite to eat at the new Mediterranean place, Cleo. The food was good and healthy. It was tapas style – you order multiple plates and share them. A great way to kick back with friends!
Published on December 14th, 2016
Last updated on August 29th, 2017