2022.04.20 让 "神奇动物 "的电影死去吧

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Let the Fantastic Beasts Movies Die
The prequel series has tried to follow the Harry Potter playbook—but neglects the original franchise’s most spellbinding features.

By Shirley Li
Dan Fogler, Jessica Williams, Eddie Redmayne, and Callum Turner staring uneasily in "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore"
Warner Bros.
APRIL 20, 2022
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This article contains spoilers for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.

The final showdown in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is supposed to be epic. Albus Dumbledore, the mighty wizard played by Jude Law, comes face-to-face with his former lover turned nemesis, Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen), breaking the pact they’d made as young men never to fight each other. But when the two began firing flashy spells from their wands, the audience at my showing—nowhere near sold out, on a Saturday evening—laughed.


Maybe they were thrown off by the rushed lead-up to the scene, which had, a beat earlier, involved an election for the next leader of a magical society. Maybe they found the look of the action—all CGI whizbangs against a colorless backdrop—silly. Or maybe, given how the clash arrived around the two-hour mark, they were simply too exhausted by the film to process what the moment meant. (I know I was.)

The Fantastic Beasts films, a prequel series that once seemed like a foolproof moneymaker to extend the Harry Potter franchise, have become an expensive exercise in diminishing returns instead. Over the weekend, Secrets, which reportedly cost $200 million to make, drew $43 million at the domestic box office, the softest opening ever for a release from the Wizarding World. Off-screen, the franchise has been plagued with trouble, including the author J. K. Rowling’s polarizing comments about the trans community, multiple cast members’ scandals, and the pandemic’s impact on the viability of theatrical releases—all of which likely contributed to an awkward press tour and rumors about an early end to a planned five-film arc.

Yet the biggest reason for Fantastic Beasts’ decline is not the pandemic or the tarnished public image of the talent involved. The series, across three installments, has never understood the audience it was trying to serve—the millions of readers and viewers who helped make Harry Potter the best-selling book series in history, turn the films’ young cast into household names, and conjure a market for a successful Broadway play. Fantastic Beasts has tried to capitalize on that massive built-in fan base, but the movies neglect the original franchise’s most spellbinding features: substantial storytelling with heaps of enduring charm.

Read: J. K. Rowling and the curse of the prequel series

That’s ironic, considering Rowling herself wrote the screenplays for the Fantastic Beasts films—something she never did for the Harry Potter adaptations. For Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Rowling’s first screenwriting endeavor, she tried replicating a trick she had pulled off in the book that started it all, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. She nestled a lighthearted adventure inside a darker conflict, with a climax that revealed a trusted character—in Fantastic Beasts, a lawman; in Sorcerer’s Stone, a professor—as a vessel for a malevolent wizard, setting the stage for sequels to come.

But in copying the structure of the beloved novel, she overlooked the element that made her readers turn to her books again and again: an identifiable lead character whose emotional journey served as the story’s anchor. Newt Scamander (played by Eddie Redmayne), the ostensible hero of the spin-off series, has a much less resonant narrative compared with Harry, a fish-out-of-water protagonist with a classic coming-of-age arc. Newt’s the only “magizoologist” in the wizarding community, defined by his passion for studying magical creatures. Plot-wise, Harry’s escapades at school delivered self-contained stories; his encounters with Voldemort, the overarching villain, didn’t overshadow his experiences. In the first Fantastic Beasts film, the shift from meeting playful critters to contending with a murderous antagonist resulted in severe tonal whiplash. The twist ending to the first film overwhelmed Newt’s story so completely that by the time Secrets begins, he’s become a mere pawn in a larger war between good and evil.

Jude Law as Dumbledore in "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore"
Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (Warner Bros.)
The world building that captivated fans of Harry Potter has also suffered in the prequel series. The former, in both book and film form, introduced the eccentricity of the magical realm gradually—a whimsical-sounding charm that levitates objects here, an enchanted mirror there—and viewed those moments through Harry’s eyes, grounding the story in humor and delight. Without such an accessible protagonist or premise, the Fantastic Beasts movies have struggled to organically expand, operating instead as a rote trivia machine. Did you know that in America, Muggles (non-magical people) are called “No-Maj”? Or that the equivalent of the Ministry of Magic is called the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA)? The films’ new details are haphazardly added, disappointingly stale, and ultimately unnecessary. In Secrets, the characters access the German Ministry of Magic through a brick wall—an idea Rowling has already applied to several other secret locations. In The Crimes of Grindelwald, the second installment, MACUSA is listed as the “American Ministry of Magic,” discarding the terminology laboriously established for the previous film.

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Most of all, Rowling seems to forget what made her characters appealing to so many. The Harry Potter series offered a sprawling but well-defined ensemble; even third-tier wizards had memorable traits and loyalties. The Fantastic Beasts prequels abandon consistency and coherent development in favor of shock and awe. New characters enter and exit story lines without fanfare; Newt’s love interest, the co-lead of the first film, barely appears in Secrets. Backstories are hard to follow; the mysterious Credence (Ezra Miller), revealed in Crimes to be a Dumbledore sibling, gets rewritten in Secrets as Albus’s nephew. The confusing stakes and connections give viewers little reason to remain invested—a problem Secrets self-consciously acknowledges when Newt spends an entire scene running down the résumés of Albus’s allies, despite the fact that most of them were already introduced in Crimes.

Indeed, Secrets does seem aware of many of the franchise’s shortcomings. Warner Bros. enlisted Steve Kloves, the screenwriter on seven of the eight Harry Potter films, to co-write the screenplay with Rowling, and their collaboration resulted in a sequel that’s marginally leaner and more logical than Crimes. But these fixes come too late for the fan base that the studio had been counting on to purchase tickets. From the outset, viewers wanted more stories, not more fun facts. They wanted character development, not endless plot twists. And besides, a screenplay hasn’t even been written yet for a fourth Fantastic Beasts film. If the series were to fizzle out, that would be a relief. No amount of movie magic can save it now.

Shirley Li is a staff writer at The Atlantic.



让 "神奇动物 "的电影死去吧
前传系列试图遵循《哈利-波特》的剧本，但却忽略了原版系列电影最吸引人的特点。

作者：Shirley Li
丹-福格勒、杰西卡-威廉姆斯、埃迪-雷德梅恩和卡勒姆-特纳在《神奇动物》中不安地凝视。邓布利多的秘密"
Warner Bros.
2022年4月20日
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本文包含《神奇动物》的剧透。邓布利多的秘密》。

神奇动物》中的最后对决。邓布利多的秘密》应该是史诗般的。阿不思-邓布利多，这个由裘德-洛扮演的强大的巫师，与他以前的情人变成了克星，盖勒特-格林德沃（麦斯-米克尔森）面对面，打破了他们年轻时的约定，永不相争。但是，当两人开始用魔杖发射华丽的咒语时，我所在的演出现场的观众--在一个星期六的晚上，几乎没有卖完的观众--都笑了起来。


也许他们是被这一幕的仓促前奏给吓到了，这一幕在一拍之前，涉及到一个魔法协会下一任领导人的选举。也许他们觉得这个动作的外观--所有的CGI动画都在一个无色的背景下发生，很傻。或者，鉴于冲突是在两小时左右发生的，他们只是被电影弄得太累了，无法处理这一刻意味着什么。(我知道我是。）

神奇动物》系列电影是一个前传系列，曾经看起来是一个万无一失的赚钱工具，可以延长《哈利-波特》的特许经营权，但现在却变成了一个昂贵的收益递减的练习。上周末，据说耗资2亿美元制作的《秘密》在国内票房为4300万美元，是魔法世界有史以来最软的开局。在屏幕之外，该系列电影一直受到麻烦的困扰，包括作者J.K.罗琳对变性人社区的两极化评论、多名演员的丑闻以及大流行病对影院发行可行性的影响--所有这些都可能导致尴尬的媒体之旅和关于提前结束五部电影计划的传言。

然而，《神奇动物》衰退的最大原因不是大流行病，也不是相关人才的公众形象受到损害。这个系列的三部作品，从来没有理解过它所要服务的观众--数以百万计的读者和观众，他们帮助哈利-波特成为历史上最畅销的图书系列，将电影中的年轻演员变成家喻户晓的名字，并为一部成功的百老汇戏剧创造了市场。神奇动物》试图利用这个庞大的固有粉丝群，但电影忽略了原版系列最吸引人的特点：实质性的故事和大量的持久魅力。

阅读。J. K. 罗琳和前传系列的诅咒

这很有讽刺意味，考虑到罗琳自己写了《神奇动物》电影的剧本--这是她从未为《哈利-波特》改编的电影做的。对于《神奇动物在哪里》，罗琳的第一次编剧工作，她试图复制她在《哈利-波特与魔法石》一书中的伎俩，开始了这一切。她将一个轻松的冒险故事依偎在一个更黑暗的冲突中，并在高潮部分揭示了一个值得信赖的角色--《神奇动物》中的一个法律工作者；《魔法石》中的一个教授--是一个邪恶的巫师的容器，为以后的续集奠定了基础。

但在复制受人喜爱的小说的结构时，她忽略了使她的读者一次又一次地转向她的书的因素：一个可识别的主角，其情感历程是故事的支柱。纽特-斯卡曼德（Eddie Redmayne饰）是衍生系列的表面上的英雄，与哈利相比，他的叙事就不那么有共鸣了，他是一个具有经典成长弧线的鱼水之欢的主角。纽特是巫师界唯一的 "魔法师"，他对研究魔法生物的热情决定了他的身份。从情节上讲，哈利在学校的逃亡经历是自成一体的故事；他与伏地魔这个大反派的遭遇并没有给他的经历蒙上阴影。在第一部《神奇动物》电影中，从遇到好玩的小动物到与一个凶残的对手抗争的转变，导致了严重的色调鞭打。第一部电影的曲折结局完全压倒了纽特的故事，以至于到了《秘密》开始的时候，他已经成为善与恶之间更大战争中的一个小卒子。

裘德-洛在《神奇动物》中扮演邓布利多。邓布利多的秘密" （The Secrets of Dumbledore
裘德-洛在《神奇动物》中扮演阿不思-邓布利多。邓布利多的秘密》(Warner Bros.)
让《哈利-波特》粉丝着迷的世界观在前传系列中也受到了影响。前者，无论是书还是电影，都逐步介绍了魔法世界的古怪之处--这里有一个听起来异想天开的符咒，那里有一面施了魔法的镜子--并通过哈利的眼睛来看待这些时刻，将故事建立在幽默和愉悦的基础上。如果没有这样一个易懂的主角或前提，《神奇动物》电影就很难有机地扩展，而是作为一个死记硬背的琐事机器来运作。你知道在美国，麻瓜（非魔法人士）被称为 "No-Maj "吗？或者，相当于魔法部的机构被称为美利坚合众国魔法大会（MACUSA）？电影中的新细节都是胡乱添加的，令人失望的陈旧，而且最终没有必要。在《秘密》中，人物通过一堵砖墙进入德国魔法部--这个想法罗琳已经应用于其他几个秘密地点。在第二部《格林德沃之罪》中，MACUSA被列为 "美国魔法部"，抛弃了为前一部电影辛苦建立的术语。

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最重要的是，罗琳似乎忘记了是什么让她的角色吸引了这么多人。哈利-波特》系列提供了一个庞大但定义明确的组合；即使是三流的巫师也有令人难忘的特征和忠诚度。神奇动物前传》放弃了一致性和连贯性的发展，转而追求震撼和敬畏。新角色进入和退出故事线时没有大张旗鼓；纽特的爱侣，第一部电影的共同主角，几乎没有出现在《秘密》中。背景故事也很难理解；在《犯罪》中被揭露为邓布利多兄弟姐妹的神秘的克雷登斯（Ezra Miller），在《秘密》中被改写为阿不思的侄子。混乱的利害关系和联系让观众没有理由继续投入--当纽特花了一整场戏来记录阿不思的盟友的履历时，《秘密》自觉地承认了这个问题，尽管他们中的大多数人在《犯罪》中已经被介绍过。

事实上，《秘密》似乎意识到了该系列电影的许多不足之处。华纳兄弟公司邀请了《哈利-波特》八部电影中的七部的编剧史蒂夫-克劳夫（Steve Kloves）与罗琳共同编写剧本，他们的合作使这部续集比《犯罪》略微精简，更符合逻辑。但是，对于工作室一直指望购买门票的粉丝群体来说，这些修正来得太晚了。从一开始，观众就想要更多的故事，而不是更多的趣事。他们想要角色发展，而不是无休止的情节转折。此外，第四部《神奇动物》电影的剧本甚至还没有写出来。如果该系列电影消亡了，那将是一种解脱。现在再多的电影魔法也无法拯救它。

Shirley Li是《大西洋》杂志的一名工作人员。