Movie Monday: Frantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Source

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Warner Bros. Pictures
Released: November 18, 2016

Rating:  
  

  


Review:  
I saw this movie the weekend that is came out but I have been debating writing a review for it because it wasn't my favorite thing and I hate that when it comes to the Harry Potter universe.

In the movie, we follow Newt Scamander and a trip to New York City. Bad things are happening and his beasts are starting to be blamed for some evil in the city. The plot was pretty good, all things considered, but that is really there are supposed to be a total of five movies and they needed it to lead somewhere. However I did find some faults, but firs lets talk about the good...

I LOVED the beasts! Everything about them was fun and adorable and if I could have a Niffler I would. He is hilarious. The creators did a wonderful job imagining these animals, they are close enough to realistic to make me believe that they could exist. I also really enjoyed the Muggle (No-Mag)/ Wizard interactions in the movie and very sad when it ended. I liked how Newt felt about the animals. He was a advocate for them and I love seeing that for ANY animals (even fantastical ones). Lastly, I loved the nostalgic feel of it all - wizards and magic and evil and the Harry potter world again and the music that makes me all tingly when I hear it because of the joy that HP brought me. I really loved all that...

But, I did have a very big issue with the movie overall. There was almost no character development and I don't know if that is because the beasts were supposed to be what we cared about or if the ending was supposed to pull it together and note that a different story is actually going to be told but I was just disappointed.  I liked Newt because he liked animals, but is that enough... not really I wanted to know his place in everything. I wanted more of Tina's back story as an Auror and what happened there. I wanted to love them and feel for them and what they wanted/needed but there was none of that. 

I assume that in the coming movies we may not be following Newt as the lead character so maybe they felt no need to dive into him as a character more, but a movie should be able to stand on its own and lack of character development on this one made it fall very short for me. I gave it 3 stars because of the nostalgia and the cute-pie beasties, not really anything else.

I do hope that you enjoyed it though :)  

Building the Book Pile #126

Welcome to Building the Book Pile!  A Weekly meme inspired by Stacking the Shelves

Hello Readers, Bloggers, and Awesome people! 

This week flew by, can you believe it is only a week until Christmas day?! I can't I need to get my butt into gear.I still have a few gifts that I need to finish but they are projects so I can't just go out an buy something - that would have made things too easy...

Work this week was both a pain and also kind of nice. I had 2 lunches one for a birthday and one as a holiday treat from my boss, so 2 afternoons were very low key. This upcoming week should be similar. We get out of work at noon on Thursday after a potluck and Tuesday we have another lunch but this time for a woman who is retiring - she is such a sweetheart I am sad to see her go.

Anyhow... as for the blog and reading - I did get a bunch of reviews up which I am happy about and I did get some reading done - but mostly I listened to audiobooks. I am living them right now (again).

How was your week?!  

  Giveaways  on Cover2CoverBlog!

Coming up on the Blog...

Movie Monday: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (I know I am late with this)
Discussion: Blog Events to Keep an Eye On 
  

Books Received this Week    

 
My True Love Gave to Me by Various (Audiobook Download) - Free- ish -after signing up for emails

Have you missed anything lately?

Week of  December 11 - December 17

Recent Reads: Rebirth Harley Quinn #7 by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner (Comic)- 5 starsRecent Reads: The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom (Adult) - 3 stars
Recent Reads: Solutions for Cold Feet and Other Little Problems by Carey Sookocheff (Youth) - 5 stars
Recent Reads: Buffering by Hannah Hart (Adult)- 5 stars

Comment and leave me a link to your Round-up/ STS/ Weekly...anything, post and I will happily stop by and say hello!

Happy Reading!

Recent Reads: Buffering by Hannah Hart

Buffering: Unshared Tales of a Life Fully Loaded by Hannah Hart
Publisher:  HarperAudio
Publication Date:  October 18, 2016

 

Format:  Audiobook/ Audible
Source: Bought/ Own

Rating:


 



Goodreads Synopsis: 

The wildly popular YouTube personality and author of the New York Times bestseller My Drunk Kitchen is back! This time, she’s stirring up memories and tales from her past.

By combing through the journals that Hannah has kept for much of her life, this collection of narrative essays deliver a fuller picture of her life, her experiences, and the things she’s figured out about family, faith, love, sexuality, self-worth, friendship and fame.

Revealing what makes Hannah tick, this sometimes cringe-worthy, poignant collection of stories is sure to deliver plenty of Hannah’s wit and wisdom, and hopefully encourage you to try your hand at her patented brand of reckless optimism.

Personal note:

Hello, my darlings! I am incredibly pleased to present BUFFERING: Unshared Tales of a Life Fully Loaded!

As a big fan of memoirs, I wanted to try my hand at writing about the events of my life that deserve a little more consideration than can be accomplished in 140-characters or a 6-minute vlog. Now on the cusp of turning 30, I'm ready to expose some parts of my life that I haven't shared before. Before, it was all about privacy, process and time. And now the time has come! I’m ready to put myself out there, for you. 

I'm a little nervous about all these vulnerable words going into the world, these tales about my love life, the wrestling I’ve done with faith, how I feel about sex and my family and myself. I’ve had a lot of trials, a lot of errors, but also a lot of passion. Here’s the thing--I've always found comfort in the stories shared by others, so I hope my stories, now that I feel ready to tell them, will bring you some comfort too.

And when you read this book please remember: Buffering is just the time it takes to process.

Enjoy!

Love,

Hannah 

Review: 
I sit a a desk for approximately 40 hours per week and in that time there is some down time and even when there isn't I can do most of my work with music or a video on in the background, so I found Hannah on YouTube. I watched and cracked up over My Drunk Kitchen, then started watching her other videos as well - the Carrot Onesies song and dance is still my all time favorite thing on the internet, so much so that when I told my hubby that I was reading "a book by a YouTuber" he replied "carrot onesies?" ... and I laughed and was excited that he listened to me when I told him about that video (thumbs up!)

I was actually watching a Hannah Hart video where she reads a chapter of her book and I said what the heck I should get it, AND she reads the audiobook. I downloaded the book and couldn't step away, I started listening at work, then in the car, then on my couch while knitting, and carried my phone around with me until I had listened to the whole thing. 

I really enjoyed this book, if you couldn't tell, I feel like you will enjoy it more if you have watched Hannah on the internet first though. You get all of those references plus get a story about her life. I had no idea that she had been through so much, and she has obviously came out of it pretty well - there is still a lot going on but she is doing what she needs to. 

Lately, I have loved books like this - stories about people trying to overcome their demons, maybe it is because I feel like I have some, but really it just makes me feel good that people are trying and somewhat succeeding.  I like hearing Hannah's story and how she has learned to adjust and cope and really liked that she was the one to read it. I was also very giddy to find that the Foreward was done by Jenny Lawson. Love these women and their struggles so much, they are real and I appreciate that.