Satudaying
I saw Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes of Grindelwald and found it underwhelming. A lot of the charm of the first film was lost in a film that was both baggy and full of exposition dumps (Leta. So much.)
Law was pretty good as younger Dumbledore, already old enough to carry plenty of baggage - and his relationship with Newt was more straightforward than with Harry because Newt is an adult. But Depp’s Grindelwald was just…there, making me think ‘Well, I’d rather be watching Magneto doing this sort of thing.’ Credence was back, I shrugged, feeling more sorry for Nagini.
There was lots from Newt’s past and more familiar Harry Potter-era places, characters and objects, which crowded out Tina, and I really disliked what they did to Queenie and Queenie/Jacob. Some bits of Wizarding Paris were cool, but as Rowling poked at her usual targets, even though there was smart streamlining over which of the beasts was in play, there wasn’t quite enough fun for a blockbuster. Redmayne’s Newt is still a delight (and the guy they cast as young Newt was excellent). It ends on a twist: Credence is a Dumbledore (or Grindelwald is lying, because how would he know?), but the next film had better be more like the first, or I will start sulking that Rowling is working on this and not the next Cormoran Strike novel.
Also, a few queries: if Leta’s brother really was dead as well as her, how did the family name carry on? Why did she go to Hogwarts and not Beauxbatons? And which family is the most dysfunctional, the Dumbledores or the Lestranges?
Strictly - the one after Blackpool
Safe black jumpsuit (Tess) and black dress (Claudia), meaning three of the judges had to bring the colour, while Shirley brought the volume.
Graeme was in a costume, again, but I very much liked Oti’s mirroring dress. He spent most of the VT complaining about being tired, and proved it by putting no effort into the whole dancing on a yacht because he was playing a sailor concept. Ha! As for the quickstep, I thought there was little style in his body, which was probably because of the mistakes I didn’t notice.
I loved the neon lit feather fans Ashley and Pasha used, given the relatively neutral colours they wore. I know she was in sparkly gold, but still. She definitely got a tough post-Blackpool dance with the samba. I thought it too hard before the judges said as much. It was still good - nice to see a shadow roll; I think we got to see more of the Pussy Doll persona, but I always doubted she’d get such a high on the samba (although Charles had managed it somehow last week).
I didn’t realise that Faye and Giovanni had switched from the American Smooth to the liftless waltz because of his back. Cue a frazzled Faye in the VT and me worrying about Giovanni doing the lindyhop. I thought the waltz was good, but it took the relatively forensic judges’ comments for me to understand why Anton was applauding so hard. And then I was worrying about Giovanni’s back again as he responded to the 10s. But it was a chance to soar on the leaderboard with Ashley having had a toughie, and I noted that both of them had plenty of time to change.
Claudia continues to singlehandedly create a her/Dave Arch narrative. It is rather brilliant.
Joe’s hair is almost AJ levels of mockable by now. I thought the prop work in his street/commercial was excellent and enjoyed getting to see hip-hop moves. Possibly he didn’t own the style as much as Charles had. It then got weird because you’d have thought the judges would agree on synchronisation.
Karen’s dress was my favourite of the night. Charles’s anxiety in the VT transferred itself into the routine, and the judges all had issues with his tango, but, in fairness, Eleanor Rigby as a tango song!? Who thought that was a bright idea? Why?
And the pool thing!? I thought Lauren’s samba was missing body action (what the judges said about her footwork clarified why), but it got better with the lifts. I still see improvement - performance-wise, she worked the camera more, and it was better than last week, it’s just that where her level is that’s telling against her at this point.
Stacey and Kevin lucked out on the music front, although he deserved all the praise he got for the choreography, because there were bits that were SO FAST and then the slower bits demanded something else from her, and okay, it ended up being schizoid and the skirt ruffling was too much, but the main impression was fierce and characterful and a very deserved joint top placing. Stacey’s camera-rush reaction to the first 10 = YAY (personality wise, she should win it). Bruno nearly swiping Shirley with his paddle = NAY.
And then the lindyhop. I’d talked myself into thinking that they should at least split it by gender, so it would be fairer. But this was not the worst ‘-athon’ in terms of the actual dancing. No crashing (mainly because nobody bothered much with travelling), and the quick-slow music created natural punctuation to help you get impression. My impression was that Ashley, Faye and Joe looked good.
Of course, the chaos ensued with the scoring. You could tell that the gallery were screaming at Claudia and Tess, and the latter misread Claudia’s comedy response, but who’d have expected Bruno to bring sense to the mess? Shirley is bad with names.
The results were mostly predictable - for all they said that this could change everything, the judges are the same and we know who the weakest three are - except that AJ was not able to save Lauren as much as I thought he would, and Joe did well, but then his jive and Charleston were strong. Possibly Stacey suffered from having just danced a demanding routine. Which all helped Faye.
I voted for Joe because his was my second favourite of the non-lindyhop routines.
As for the lindyhop debacle, I don’t think anyone other than the show’s producers thinks it’s a great idea. If they made them all do the routine properly in the finale, it might have some validity on the comparison front, because I can’t see enough of anyone to judge them fairly. As it is, the main appeal is us ghoulishly wondering if anyone will crash into each other.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/359441.html.
Law was pretty good as younger Dumbledore, already old enough to carry plenty of baggage - and his relationship with Newt was more straightforward than with Harry because Newt is an adult. But Depp’s Grindelwald was just…there, making me think ‘Well, I’d rather be watching Magneto doing this sort of thing.’ Credence was back, I shrugged, feeling more sorry for Nagini.
There was lots from Newt’s past and more familiar Harry Potter-era places, characters and objects, which crowded out Tina, and I really disliked what they did to Queenie and Queenie/Jacob. Some bits of Wizarding Paris were cool, but as Rowling poked at her usual targets, even though there was smart streamlining over which of the beasts was in play, there wasn’t quite enough fun for a blockbuster. Redmayne’s Newt is still a delight (and the guy they cast as young Newt was excellent). It ends on a twist: Credence is a Dumbledore (or Grindelwald is lying, because how would he know?), but the next film had better be more like the first, or I will start sulking that Rowling is working on this and not the next Cormoran Strike novel.
Also, a few queries: if Leta’s brother really was dead as well as her, how did the family name carry on? Why did she go to Hogwarts and not Beauxbatons? And which family is the most dysfunctional, the Dumbledores or the Lestranges?
Strictly - the one after Blackpool
Safe black jumpsuit (Tess) and black dress (Claudia), meaning three of the judges had to bring the colour, while Shirley brought the volume.
Graeme was in a costume, again, but I very much liked Oti’s mirroring dress. He spent most of the VT complaining about being tired, and proved it by putting no effort into the whole dancing on a yacht because he was playing a sailor concept. Ha! As for the quickstep, I thought there was little style in his body, which was probably because of the mistakes I didn’t notice.
I loved the neon lit feather fans Ashley and Pasha used, given the relatively neutral colours they wore. I know she was in sparkly gold, but still. She definitely got a tough post-Blackpool dance with the samba. I thought it too hard before the judges said as much. It was still good - nice to see a shadow roll; I think we got to see more of the Pussy Doll persona, but I always doubted she’d get such a high on the samba (although Charles had managed it somehow last week).
I didn’t realise that Faye and Giovanni had switched from the American Smooth to the liftless waltz because of his back. Cue a frazzled Faye in the VT and me worrying about Giovanni doing the lindyhop. I thought the waltz was good, but it took the relatively forensic judges’ comments for me to understand why Anton was applauding so hard. And then I was worrying about Giovanni’s back again as he responded to the 10s. But it was a chance to soar on the leaderboard with Ashley having had a toughie, and I noted that both of them had plenty of time to change.
Claudia continues to singlehandedly create a her/Dave Arch narrative. It is rather brilliant.
Joe’s hair is almost AJ levels of mockable by now. I thought the prop work in his street/commercial was excellent and enjoyed getting to see hip-hop moves. Possibly he didn’t own the style as much as Charles had. It then got weird because you’d have thought the judges would agree on synchronisation.
Karen’s dress was my favourite of the night. Charles’s anxiety in the VT transferred itself into the routine, and the judges all had issues with his tango, but, in fairness, Eleanor Rigby as a tango song!? Who thought that was a bright idea? Why?
And the pool thing!? I thought Lauren’s samba was missing body action (what the judges said about her footwork clarified why), but it got better with the lifts. I still see improvement - performance-wise, she worked the camera more, and it was better than last week, it’s just that where her level is that’s telling against her at this point.
Stacey and Kevin lucked out on the music front, although he deserved all the praise he got for the choreography, because there were bits that were SO FAST and then the slower bits demanded something else from her, and okay, it ended up being schizoid and the skirt ruffling was too much, but the main impression was fierce and characterful and a very deserved joint top placing. Stacey’s camera-rush reaction to the first 10 = YAY (personality wise, she should win it). Bruno nearly swiping Shirley with his paddle = NAY.
And then the lindyhop. I’d talked myself into thinking that they should at least split it by gender, so it would be fairer. But this was not the worst ‘-athon’ in terms of the actual dancing. No crashing (mainly because nobody bothered much with travelling), and the quick-slow music created natural punctuation to help you get impression. My impression was that Ashley, Faye and Joe looked good.
Of course, the chaos ensued with the scoring. You could tell that the gallery were screaming at Claudia and Tess, and the latter misread Claudia’s comedy response, but who’d have expected Bruno to bring sense to the mess? Shirley is bad with names.
The results were mostly predictable - for all they said that this could change everything, the judges are the same and we know who the weakest three are - except that AJ was not able to save Lauren as much as I thought he would, and Joe did well, but then his jive and Charleston were strong. Possibly Stacey suffered from having just danced a demanding routine. Which all helped Faye.
I voted for Joe because his was my second favourite of the non-lindyhop routines.
As for the lindyhop debacle, I don’t think anyone other than the show’s producers thinks it’s a great idea. If they made them all do the routine properly in the finale, it might have some validity on the comparison front, because I can’t see enough of anyone to judge them fairly. As it is, the main appeal is us ghoulishly wondering if anyone will crash into each other.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/359441.html.