Bohemian Rhapsody - Review

I think in my whole life, I never met anyone who didn't love Queen. Don't get me wrong, I know a shitload of people who only know "Bohemian Rhapsody" and/or "We Are The Champions" and/or "We Will Rock You" - who simply are not massive fans who know everything about the band and to be fair, I'm far from knowing every little bit of trivia or every song by heart. But regardless of that - no matter if I ask my almost 70 years old grandma or my mum who's in her forties or my friends in their twenties or my teenage siblings - everyone loves Queen and their music. Those guys are legends. And as legends deserve, as of late October, we now have a movie about this band to follow them through their career.

The movie starts out in 1970 with young Freddie Bulsara (Rami Malek), who is a college student and baggage handler at Heathrow airport, seeing a band live and meeting them after the show. The band, at this point only guitarist Brian May (Gwilym Lee) and drummer Roger Taylor (Ben Hardy) after their original lead singer and bassist just dropped out, can quickly be convinced that Freddie should be their new voice. Add bassist John Deacon (Joseph Mazello) and Queen is born. In the same night, Freddie also meets Mary Austin (Lucy Boynton) and they start dating.

They play local gigs all over the UK, sell Rogers van to get the money necessary to record an album and almost immediately land a contract with EMI records. Freddie legally changes his name to Freddie Mercury. While his mother and sister seem to be pretty supportive, his father is having none of all of this. Freddie proposes to Mary, who he lives with at this point.

On their first very successful U.S. tour, he begins to realize he is also attracted to men.
From then on we follow the band (but mostly Freddie) through the centuries, through their different songwriting processes (for Bohemian Rhapsody as much as for Another One Bites The Dust or We Will Rock You), different hairstyles, Freddies coming-out to and break up with Mary, Freddie becoming more and more extravagant, Freddie going solo, and ultimately, the reconciliation of the band for the legendary Life Aid concert in 1985, shortly after Freddie learned that he has AIDS.
I don't want to give away too many details because this is a movie that you should see yourself. That much in advance.

I want to say: I love this movie a lot. I laughed, I cried, I did both at the same time, as did my friends who went to see it with me. It was big and bold and beautiful. I think, to us poor souls who haven't spend a single second of being alive at the same time as Freddie Mercury, this is the closest thing that we can get to seeing Queen live on stage. 

There are several aspects I liked especially, first of all, the portrayal of not one musical mastermind but four who complement each other - something people who are not die-hard Queen fans might not be too aware of. Seeing the process of songs like the ones mentioned above has its very own magic.
Another thing was the portrayal of Freddie Mercury's sexuality. Opinions diverge on the question whether he was gay or bisexual, and while this was a huge point for criticism in other reviews, I personally like that this question was not answered completely throughout the movie - simply because Freddie never truly answered the question himself. Which one it truly was is a secret he took to his early grave. However, we still get a great portrayal of a queer character who can be read as gay or bi or something without a defining label, but definitely queer. That said - even with his AIDS infection, there is no pity porn in this movie. He is not defined by his queerness alone, he is not struggling because of his queerness alone, it is made just as much a deal of as necessary when you make a movie about Freddie Mercury, not too much, not too little. It felt very healthy that way.
Coming to speak of portrayal, I am a massive fan of the cast. Just look at this: 

They look so incredibly alike! This is one A-plus cast! I am in awe! Even if they didn't make an effort to play their roles properly, this is Queen! Big applause for this cast!

Last but not least, I have read a good portion of criticism regarding the portrayal of the bands (read: not only Freddies) excessive parties including a shitload of drugs and a shitload of sex. To be honest, I think the movie hinted towards that a good bit without showing too much, and I think that makes it more accessible for everyone to watch, so that's a good thing! The way I saw this movie, it wasn't at all swept under the carpet that these guys were no saints, it just wasn't shown too explicitly, and that's ok because not everyone wants to see that kind of things. 
To be honest, I think this movie might be worth some awards, and I really hope that it becomes a legend as well, just as Queen themselves.

Ant-Man and The Wasp - Review

Aaaaah, Ant-Man and The Wasp, my shining beacon in the darkness that Infinity War left not only for me. Mostly because it meant that this wasn't the end for forgettable me completely ignoring Infinity War being promoted as a two-part film already, and it also meant that the next step was something funny and somewhat light (even within the MCU which is very humoristic at all times anyway to begin with).

Well, the thing is: Ant-Man and The Wasp is set a little before/during Infinity War and not, as my no-trailers-watching ass thought, shortly after it. I really need to get across to myself that the MCU is not linear at all. (Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey, I have to add as someone currently re-watching Doctor Who).

The movie starts with a flashback to Hopes childhood and the day her parents left for work (apparently, at that point, young Hope doesn't know about them being super heroes) and only Hank coming back. This flashback beautifully doubles as an introduction of Janet, The Wasp, being a warm-hearted, loving mother and wife which I like a lot to begin with - because she is all of that, all this things traditionally tied to a very feminine role, and at the exact same time she is also a hero, a fighter, courageous, bad-ass, all things that within traditional gender roles and traditional gender coding in fiction get mutually excluded with the role of the emotional care-taker. I just really like that at this point we seem to be beyond the point were female super heroes had to be all serious and cold and "one of the boys" to be heroic. At the end of the flashback we see Hank suggesting to Hope that, since Scott was able to come back from the Quantum Realm, Janet may still be alive and could be retrieved from there as well, and they start building a tunnel to do so.

Cut to Scott, who after Civil War and participating in trashing the airport in Leipzig (which I, as a person born and raised and living in Leipzig have a bit of hard feelings about as well) with Captain America and his team is on house arrest. He currently has his daughter Cassie over, they manage to have a lot of fun even without being able to leave the house and Scott is just being a great dad. You guys see this? Great role model. Just maybe without the crime and jailtime before that. We also get to see that the relationship to his ex-wife Maggie and her boyfriend Paxton got a lot better, they are all having a good big old patchwork family thing going on, and this warms my cold, empty heart after Infinity War and I really needed this, so thanks Marvel, you did well! (I will stop gushing mid-plot summary now).

After Cassie leaves, Scott takes a bath and has a vision of Janet. He contacts Hank, even though he's not supposed to be in contact with him and Hope. Shortly after he gets stung by an ant, faints and wakes up in a car with Hope. Turns out, she and Hank are very angry at him for going to Germany without saying anything, but since Hank sees the vision as a sign that Janet is still alive, he wants Scotts help to relocate her. Willing to make the tunnel more stable, they try to get a part from a black market dealer called Sonny Birch, who turns out wanting to get into their business and trying to blackmail them into it. When Hope aka the new Wasp figths him and his team, Ghost turns up and steals the shrinked lab.

As you can see, summarizing the plot without telling to much is a bit of an issue because theres a lot of stuff going on with two antagonists, several storylines and just a lot happening in general, but somehow, when you see the full movie, it doesn't get confusing at all - it's just like real life, just a lot going on simultaneously. What we get is a lot of character developement happening, a lot of plot to begin with and theres still plenty of room for the typical Ant-Man humour (both old fan favourites like Luis, everyones fucking son, taking veeery wide stretches to re-tell stuff, and new running gags as well) and nicely done action sequences. It's just overall a pretty well-made movie in my opinion, just the right mix of everything that makes Marvel movies special.

I already gushed on a lot about how much I love the character introduction of Janet and the portrayal of Scott as a dad, but I also want you to know that I adore ghost - her character design reminds me of a post-apocalyptic dystopia and I am always here for that, and she has a very interesting back story.
Of course, we don't know how and if the Ant-Man series will continue after Infinity War (and that makes all of this very frustrating let me tell you!) but I really hope it does because let's be honest - Ant-Man is kind of my comfort place right now. Even with personally being really apalled by ants.

Black Panther - Review

Originally, I was very reluctant to write a review about Black Panther. I was feeling like I could be pushing into a space that was not for me and that it wasn't my place to judge wether or not Black Panther was represantative for black people - because, after all, I am white and I can't talk for a group of people I am not part of. On the other hand, wouldn't voicing my opinion and thoughts about BP (spoiler: I loved it a lot) be amplifying it and using my privilege to help elevating it?
Since I didn't feel like I could make that decision myself, I asked tumblr blog writingwithcolor. Usually, they give all sorts of tips on how to write POC characters in fiction (if you're a writer of some sort, definitely check them out!), but I felt like they were the right ones to ask this anyway,  even if it was about non-fiction. (You can read their full answer here.)
The point that reasonated most with me was: Racists don't hesitate to write bad, racist reviews about it, so why should I hesitate to write praise? All support is good support as long as I don't speak for black people, but for myself and my own mind. And what can I say, that does make perfect sense. So here we go.
Black Panther is set after Civil War where T'Chaka, the King of Wakanda, a fictional country in Africa, was killed and his son T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) takes his place. He returns to Wakanda to be crowned king and officially become the Black panther. On the outside Wakanda pretends to be a third world country, but actually they are a very well developed nation with a high level of technology way ahead of the outside world based on their rich vibranium resources. The reason they managed to develope so well and stay that way is mostly their secrecy and keeping everyone else out, because that way, they never got colonialized and exploited by the Europeans like the rest of Africa. But obviously keeping the borders closed and keeping to themselves also means not really helping people on the outside either. While the military does do missions to, for example, save Nigerian women from being trafficked, some feel like this is to little given what they could do with all the technical developement they have. The big question here is: Keep Wakanda a secret to protect it, or risk the safety to help others?
One character who advocates for the later is Nakia (Lupita N'yongo), T'Challas ex, a so-called War Dog, an undercover spy to complete missions in other countries - she has seen a lot of the misery the outside world has to deal with and feels the need to help these people more than they do now. However, this is not really a radical view and thus she is not radical.
Other than Eric Killmonger, T'Challas lost cousin who returns to Wakanda, claims the throne, wins it rightfully in a traditional battle and becomes king. His idea is to distribute the (a lot more advanced) weapons Wakanda has to all the black people in the world to conquer their oppressors. In order to prevent that, T'Challa has to reclaim the throne - and also needs to find an answer to the question wethere they should stay hidden or help the world and a good way to do it.
I already hinted at me loving the movie and that there will be a lot of praise.
First of all: Boom, black representation! Of course it's not my place to judge wether or not black people feel represented by Black Panther. But it the place of black people to say wether or not they feel represented, people like Michelle Obama for example, all the non-famous black voices I read on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, and, of course, all the black people involved in the making of Black Panther, the actors, the director, everyone. On a very theoretical standpoint though, it is a game changer: We see black people being the heroes instead of thugs and criminals, we see black people being rich instead of poor, we see black people being highly intelligent instead of uneducated - we see so many stereotypes being not used for once, all while none of them is any less human, because not one character is in any way overglorified. They are human, they make mistakes, they may have problematic views that need to be deconstructed and questioned, and that is a great thing about there being so many black characters: all of them get to be different and we see a wide spectrum of diverse roles they play, contributing to the radical notion that black people are exactly that: People that are all individuals with strenghts and weaknesses just like every white character we have ever seen in movies, just that they are black. Now that doesn't sound like such a huge deal, and you are right, it actually isn't. And at the same time is, because while it should definitely be, this is far from being the standard. I think I, personally, have never seen a movie where black people just got to be people like everyone else.
Also, all of that happened while completely embracing blackness - the amount of different African influences we see in Wakanda is astounding. There are lip plates, head dresses, masks, neck rings and a lot more influences from different African cultures - I highly recommend the Twitter thread from Waris (@diasporicblues) who explains all the influences, you can learn a lot from that. Black Panther is refreshingly unapologizing of their blackness. Another thing I loved about it is that when the Wakandans speak English, they have a very distinctive accent and they still get to be taken seriously. Because they are serious. Another thing that should be the standard but isn't.
Then there is the way Black Panther plays with stereotypes and racism. Characters make jokes about stereotypes and shit with white people, T'Challas sister Shuri calling one "colonizer" is legendary, and to be fair: Yes. Yes it does sting a bit being the butt of a joke and reduced to side kicks and minor roles. But be honest with yourself, isn't that just fair? Isn't that what the predominately white movie industry does to people of colour all the time? And also: Doesn't it show that when we feel a bit caught that we still have to work on our own internalized racism?
Last but definitely not least: Holy shmokes the women! Sure, it doesn't pass the Bechdel test completely: While there are four named female roles (part one: check), who talk to each other (part two: check), they do mostly talk about men. But honestly, since the Black Panther, the main character, and also the villain(s) are male, that's a given. However, we have plenty of strong, amazing women on screen, they are diverse in character, have different strenghts, weaknesses, opinions and feelings and that is a lot more than what can be said about most films. I already talked about Nakia (Lupita N'yongo) in detail, there's Shuri (Letitia Wright) who is an amazing scientist and has the best humour (very meme-y), we have Okoye (Danai Gurira) who may be the fiercest warrior I have always seen (and who I instantly fell in love with, hands down. I am very bi, thanks), we have a very gracious Queen Mother Ramonda (Angela Basset) and so many other women who don't have names and lines but are still fierce and strong and amazing. If you can't manage to praise Black Panther as a anti-racist/ally for POC - at least recognize how feminist it is.
Other than all the social/political things that are to praise about Black Panther, it was a very entertaining story, it was just visually beautiful, it had really nice music and while I read that a lot of people didn't like the special effects: I, as someone who has no fricking clue of special effects, don't see what their problem is (which means, there was nothing feeling off or ripping me out of the experience).
So, overall: If you haven't seen Black Panther yet, go see it. And if you have already seen it... go see it again.

Justice League - Review

When it comes to movie adaptions of comics, I am definitely on the Marvel side of life. Sure, I like Heath Ledgers Joker as much as the next guy (and already know I might be roasted for this statement), but Marvel is just a lot more fun for me. Also, I think Superman is the lamest super hero ever (c'mon please, roast me!).
But I am also a highly impressionable person and when the whole of the internet praises Wonder Woman I can't resist the urge to go watch it (the only reason I did not review it is that I was too much in awe to form any straight thoughts about it that could word an actual review - please note the very intentional use of the word straight in that sentence). And when my lady, my wife, the mother of my adopted children returns to the screen, I am impressively able to endure Superman and Ben Afflecks Batman.
Let's start with Batman, actually. I did not see any of the movies building up to Justice League (except WW), and I don't plan to change that. I think it is clear by now that I don't care for Superman, but what is my problem with Batsy? Well... I actually did like the Dark Knight Trilogy a lot. But never necessarily for Batman himself. I never liked any of Batman for Batman himself, to be honest. What I do like is all the characters surrounding him. The villains, obviously, but also characters like Comissioner Gordon, Alfred and Lucius Fox, and for a good part, I liked them in the TDK trilogy because they were cast incredibly well. Therefore, my problem with Ben Afflecks Batman is neither Batman nor Ben Affleck (even though, despite him apparently being one of Hollywoods nice guys, I am not a big fan of his either. It's Alfred not being Michael Caine anymore. It has to be Michael Caine. It's Lucius Fox not being Morgan Freeman anymore - it has to be Morgan Freeman. It's Gordon not being Gary Oldman anymore - you get the drift. Ben Affleck actually plays a quite decent Batsy (but his chin looks weird in the mask, just saying), but everything surrounding him feels wrong.
But let's talk about the newcomers instead because they are the ones who are actually interesting.
The Flash is a character I never dealt with before. I don't know shit about the Flash, so I can't compare the Flash I saw in Justice League with anything. What I saw is a young, quirky character, so quick not only physically but mentally as well that he stumbles, again, not only physically but vocally as well - he's awkward and clumsy, and for the later, I think that little flaw makes him interesting and human. Yeah, I can run super fast but I trip a lot while doing so. He is the main comic relief of the movie without it feeling like laughing at his cost. He brings a bit of Marvel into this DC movie, and I really hope to see a stand alone Flash movie in the future. Also, Ezra Miller is briliant, as always.
Then there's Cyborg who, in my opinion, has the biggest character developement to show for. We have this kid who should have died in the car accident he went through and who is bitter about being alive but not human. He hurts a lot. Wonder Woman, as the compassionate being with the giant heart that she is, tries to take care of him, but it's everything but easy to get through to him. Yet, he learns to embrace his everchanging super body and the opportunity to do good in this world with it.
Last but not least: DC finally managed to make Aquaman cool, but I guess everyone is cool when played by Jason Momoa.The lovely thing about this is that they picked up a lot of the things that made Aquaman so ridiculous before and turned them around for himself to make fun of them. Sadly, of all the less established characters, Aquaman is still the one least threedimensional.
Now what happens to all those characters that makes Justice League an actual story?
The premise for JL is that after Supermans death, the world is pretty much broken and very vulnerable. This opens up a chance for the mother boxes to be activated again. The three mother boxes serve both as a powerful weapon when combined and as portals for the one using the weapons: Steppenwolf, a godlike creature, who attempts to conquer and reimagine planet Earth with his army of parademons. Thousands of years ago, he was defeated by the combined powers of mankind, the amazons, the atlanteans, the olympic gods and the green lanterns, and the mother boxes were separated and hidden away: One was guarded on Themyscira, one in Atlantis and one was burried by the humans so no leader could try to use the power against other human tribes. But step by step Steppenwolf reclaims the boxes kept by the amazons and the atlanteans. Leaves the one burried by the humans, and thus the Justice League gets together to protect it and protect Earth from Steppenwolf and his army.
Boiled down like this, the plot is in fact pretty thin, it is a simple good vs. bad story, but the characters and their side-plots are what keeps Justice League alive and going. Of course it was not an epiphany, but it was solid entertainment and I really enjoyed watching it and would watch it again.
But next time, let Patty Jenkins do it. Just let Patty Jenkins do all of the DC movies from now on. Yeah, Zack Snyder, I saw what you did. Making the amazons outfits more revealing again and make Gal Gadots butt peek out occasionally makes it worse. 

Spider-Man: Homecoming - Review

One great thing about being in England this week is that I got to see Spider-Man: Homecoming a week earlier than in Germany. I am pretty sure waiting another week might have killed me. No, patience is not one of my strong features.
First of all, I am very glad they did not repeat the usual Spider-Man origin story. We all know by now that Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider, thus got superpowers, then his uncle got killed etc. etc. with great power comes great responsibility - we've seen it several times and are informed at this point (in case you have not seen it before, were not aware of Peter Parkers backstory and are not informed... spoiler?). This backstory was not told again in Homecoming, and it gave room to a lot more plot after all of that. Of course we knew about the lack of backstory because we have seen Tom Holland as Spider-Man in Civil War already - the story of Homecoming starts off right after that. Peter is told by Tony Stark to "not do anything [he] would do, certainly not do anything [he] wouldn't do, there's a little grey area between those and that is were [he - Peter] should operate" (greatest advise ever) and that he will be called by someone if there's another operation for the Avengers Peter can help with. So Peter is dropped back into his usual life, going to school, being an awkward teen and, secretly, also the friendly Spider in the neighbourhood. And, of course, Peter is ridiculously keen to get on another mission with the big guys. So instead of just doing little things to help everyone around, he also gets in trouble with a huge group of people who develop weapons from the remainings of the alien attack 8 years ago (as seen in the first Avengers movie), some comparedly harmless like a anti-gravity gun, some really everything but harmless, like granates. So of course Peter does all the things Tony Stark would and wouldn't do and gloriously fucks up both as Spider-Man and at being a normal teenager for everyone else - which, obviously, has consequences.
Spider-Man: Homecoming got the whole teenage thing right. For the first time, with Tom Holland, we have a believable 15-years-old Peter Parker - he looks young enough to be 15, he and his peers at school have believable teenage vocabulary and interests, and personally, I think Marisa Tomei is great as May as well - after all, she's supposed to be the sister of a mother of a 15-years-old boy, so why exactly did everyone look so old so far? In my honest opinion, an Aunt May in her late 30s to early 40s makes a lot more sense - even though Marisa Tomei is 52, she does pull that kind of age portayal off very well.
Another point that I really like about this movie is the diversity we see in Midtown High and around the neighbourhood - another point that makes perfect sense since a) America has a diverse population, b) New York sure as hell has a diverse population and c) god, when will the day come when natural diversity actually been shown in movies is something that isn't outstanding? So of bloody course Peters best friend Ned Leeds (Jacob Batalon) is Filipino, his love interest Liz Allan (Laura Harrier) is black, then theres Zendaya as Michelle (who might be the most relatable character ever, at least for me) - it's a proper percentage of brown people in there, and personally, I love it. Yay Marvel!
So we have all of that, plus amazing dialogues, just the right amount of Tony Stark (and other characters from the other movies) making appearances, just the right mix of awesome fighting scenes and a proper plot and a really nice sound track (Marvel clearly learned something from making two Guardians of the Galaxy movies which live from the sound track). Overall, Spider-Man: Homecoming has been a really good experience and I might want to enjoy it a few times more.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - Review

Ooga chaka ooga chaka ooga chaka I CAN'T STOP THIS FEELING that there is a new Guardians of the Galaxy movie and it's really awesome again!
That's it. That's the review. Peace out.
No, of course not, I do have to go in detail with all the gushing I have to do for this movie.
First of all, I want you all to know that when it comes to Marvel (or DC, for that matter), I am not a big comic reader. All those endless series is a bit too much for me to be honest. Don't hate me for that.
Accordingly, as in 2014 when I went to see the first Guardians of the Galaxy, I had really no idea what the second one would be about either, other than a group of... people? In space? The trailers are really vague about that. What it is about is that Peter Quill aka Star-Lord finally meets his dad. In the first movie we already learned that Peters father is not human. Instead, he turns out to be a celestial being with, apparently, unlimited godly powers. However, Gamora remains sceptical about him when Peters father takes her, Peter and Drax with him on his home planet. Might be due to his name, Ego, which does sound like you should stay woke around him, I'll give her that. With Ego is Mantis, a girl with feelers who can sense and, to a certain degree, change someones emotions by touching them. She is very sweet, naive and shy - and accidently reveals Peters love for Gamora in public which is a problem due to the "unspoken thing" between them. 
The second plot line is the Sovereign, a golden perfectionist race, chasing the Guardians of the Galaxy all through space because Rocket stole some batteries that they originally were hired to protect from a giant monster.
And last but not least there is Yondu standing against all Ravagers since he did not fulfill the codex and his own crew wants him gone since they think he's become "soft". With the help of Rocket and Groot, Yondu escapes and starts a new life helping the Guardians.
Admittedly, it is hard to summarize the plot without spoilers (I hope I did well) since there are a lot of puzzle pieces scattered all over the place but I promise you that all those pieces come together perfectly when you watch the whole movie.
Once again I am really in love with all the characters. While with the Avengers, I have favourites and characters I don't like that much, I couldn't do that with the Guardians of the Galaxy. The characters are so well-written, threedimensional and loveable, asking me who was my favourite would be like asking me which one of my children I love most. Within the movie, each one of them has a good amount of character developement going on, it is not much but the perfect amount to still have a proper plot and multiple very awesome fighting scenes. The new characters (Ego and Mantis) follow that direction perfectly.
I have one little bit of criticism for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but that's really complaining about first world problems: This movie, as the second one, lives from the amazing soundtrack, the Awesome Mix Vol. 1 is iconic by now. While Awesome Mix Vol. 2 is really cool too, it is, in comparison, a bit forgettable. I am missing a signature song or two, but that's it. That's all I can say about this movie (negatively). Other than that, it is another must see for everyone who enjoys space, aliens, talking raccoons and trees (baby Groot is the cutest) and a humorous Marvel masterpiece.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Review

I have to admit I am pretty new (read: late) to the Star Wars fandom. To be clear: I did watch the original trilogy as a teen, I also saw the prequels, but I wasn't caught yet until last year when The Force Awakens came out and my beloved boyfriend (oh such a Star Wars super-nerd) got me all hyped up - and Tumblr as well, admittedly. We went to see TFA, I loved it, I didn't stop talking about it for weeks, we went to see it again in English because we saw this video the night before and really liked Adam Drivers actual voice, I made Rey and Kylo Ren cosplays for my boyfriend and me (and spent the week before the convention in complete desperation), long story short: It got me. Which, really, wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for the hype beforehand.

In comparison, Rogue One almost sneaked up upon me. To be fair, I was pretty lazy when it came to watching teasers, trailers and so on in 2016. Honestly, I haven't even seen the most recent trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 yet. I remember watching the first teaser in April but only because my friend who I was staying with at that time watched it and I was a bit hyped back then, but that's it. It all just went down a bit more quiet.
Still, because I am my boyfriends girlfriend, we went to see it the weekend right after it came out. And again a week after that in English (because this is how we roll).

In case you don't already know: Rogue One is set between the prequels and the original trilogy and tells how the plans of the Death Star are stolen and brought to Princess Leia. The team doing so is Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), the daughter of Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) who worked on it's developement, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a Rebel Alliance Captain, the droid K2-SO (Alan Tudyk), the ex-Guardians of the Whills Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen) and Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen), Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), a former Imperial cargo pilot, and a small squad of other rebels who choose to come with them even though the idea to steal the plan is rejected by the Rebel council.

I'm starting with the (very few) negative remarks I have because why not?
I missed the intro text. I really, really missed being greeted by a wall of yellow text descending into space. Yes, we know what happened before, we even know already what happens afterwards, but the intro text just belongs to Star Wars movies, ok?
The second point I have is the timing. I was kind of looking forward to see more of Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron and was now confronted with an entirely new team inbetween. That is not inherently bad, but I think I would've enjoyed it more if Rogue One came out first or after the sequels, not inbetween. But well, this is complaining about first world problems, really.

...and that's everything negative that I can say about Rogue One. Isn't that telling? Except for those two points, I loved Rogue One. The characters had great dynamics with each other, their motives are completely legit, the story made complete sense and actually, it was pretty nice to see only "normal" people act for once instead of once again crying inside because I'm not force-sensitive. That's something, right?

Tbh, I can't write much more without spoilers, so I'll leave it as it is right now and have nothing more to say than: I can't wait for Episode VIII.

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them - Review

As a die-hard Harry Potter fan who has read every single book about the wizard world at least once, from the very first "Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much" to the last "So do I" (yes, the last line of Cursed Child is a bit unspectacular), of course I was thrilled when I heard there would be a new movie series about J. K. rowlings magical world. Harry Potter was the book series that got me into binge-reading little libraries worth of books, starting a long line of things happening in my life that ends with me now doing a job I couldn't be happier with. To me, as to so many of us, Harry Potter means the world.

Now, 5 years after the last movie closed this world to us, we got Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. Now when I say I read everything there is to read about Harry Potter, of course that includes Fantastic Beasts, a tiny book by J. K. Rowling published with Comic Relief in 2001. That book was made as the text book by Newt Scamander Harry, Ron and Hermoine used at Hogwarts to learn about magical creatures, so it was more of an encyclopedia, non-fiction, nothing with a story. Accordingly, while I was thrilled, I was also sceptical (yes, I tend to be), how were they going to make a movie from a text book? Let alone five movies?
I was fearing this to be just a way to get more money out of us loving Harry Potter fans who (let's face it) would pay for everything allowing us to live in this world a little longer.

Boy was I wrong.

It's easy to say that seing the Warner Bros. logo on the big theater screen plus hearing the oh-so-well-known melody equals one trip back down fan feeling lane, but actually, it is the story and the characters that fully convinced me.
We got young Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), a British wizard, arriving in the USA by ship with a suitcase that wiggles around oddly. On his way through New York, he comes across a gathering of muggles, sorry, no-majs, in front of a bank listening to a woman trying to convince them about wizards and witches existing amongst them and that they should be hunted down and be killed. While he listens to her, a creature escapes from his suitcase: A niffler, a small, rodent-like creature with a long snout, black fur, and a kangaroo-like pouch to collect shiny things in. That's why it escaped, there are a lot of shiny things in banks, and Newt chases after it to get it back in the suitcase.
In the bank, he meets no-maj Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler). Kowalski wants to apply for a credit to open up his own bakery, and he has a suitcase very simmilar to Newts. Sadly, since he has no security he could offer to the bank, his apply gets rejected. On his way out, he stumbles over Newt again and in a quick turn of events they are inside a bank safe surrounded by security guards and Kowalski knows a bit more about magic than he should. They escape, and Newt tries to obliterate him, but Kowalski defends himself and escapes yet again - with the wrong suitcase. This is where Newt meets Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), a witch who arrest him immediately and takes him to the MACUSA (the American Ministry of Magic), where we find out that she is actually an ex-auror. When they find out that the suitcases got mixed up, they go find Kowalski, who has already been bitten by one of Newts creatures. Tina and her sister Queenie (Alison Sudol), a legilimens (mind-reader), take them in and the four of them start searching for the creatures that Kowalski let escape the suitcase.

Meanwhile, New York has another magical problem, one even wizards can't really explain, let alone no-majs: A giant dark shadow destroys streets and buildings and even kills. Maybe Newt with his expertise of magical creatures may be able to help?

While in the Harry Potter movies, we had the joy of watching a young wizard learn to control his power and learn what can be done with it, now we see this power put to daily use. The awkward tries of the pupils were funny to watch, but seeing fully trained wizards and witches apparate through the town is a lot more fascinating - expecially since it seems to be no big deal, everyone can do it. Everything else would feel wrong in my opinion, so I am glad they actually did it like this.
A lovely detail is the menagerie Newt has in the depths of his suitcase: He has creatures of every size and type down there, from tiny bowtruckles to majestic thunderbirds, and he does his best to give them an appropriate home down there. His love for his creatures is contageous!
And last but not least: romance! While Tina and Newt really take it cool and develope more of a friendship rather than an actual romance right-away, Queenie and Jacob have their love at the first sight story and it actually works! Admittedly, it is very cheesy, but it doesn't seem a tad unrealistic and is explained very well.

When I left the cinema, I was crying tears of joy. As many as I cried when I got my job two years ago, to put it in comparison. And I didn't stop crying for the whole night, because I felt so at home, so welcome back to J. K. Rowlings magical world. So, in conclusion, I do not at all regret seeing Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them on the big screen and I'll take the next four ones with open arms. Hell, I'd take dozens of them if they are half as good as this one! So I reccomend watching it, may it be because you love Harry Potter or because you love one of the already well-known actors in the movie or because you love animals, just please watch it!

Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children - Review

Writing a review about a movie adaption of a book is never easy. There will always be people who compare the movie to the book and most of the time, they hate the movie, and there will always be people who prefer to see the movie as an individual piece of media and judge it based in that. Thus, I could write for one of those groups now, either comparing or just completely ignoring that there is a book to start with. I decided to do both, sort of.

First of all, I really enjoyed the book. It is one of the best pieces of fantasy I have read in quite some time, and that truly means something given that I've come to realize due to my job as a bookseller that the genre of fantasy is overall pretty uncreative. There's a good guy, there's a bad guy, the good guy fights the bad guy and gets the girl, you know, because he's the good guy. Genders may vary, even though usually still heteronormative.

Compared to that, Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs was a refreshing bliss. Yes, there are still the good guys and the bad guys. And the main good guy (called protagonist by some people) gets the girl. But the overall idea is fairly innovative.
The good guys are the Peculiars. Peculiars are people with special abilities like being free from gravity or being invisible or being able to manipulate time. The latter are called ymbrynes, and they're always women and also able to transform into birds, which is pretty neat. The ymbrynes have taken the task to look after young peculiars and keep them save in time loops.
The bad guys are the Hollows and Wights. Hollows are corrupted peculiars who wanted to use the ymbrynes to make themselves immortal but like everything, immortality comes with a price and thus now they are deformed monsters who are invisible to most people (and Peculiars). In order to gain a human form again, they have to eat Peculiars. Then, they become Wights, basically human, but easily recognizable by their eyes which are completely white.
When he was younger, the protagonist Jake heard about the peculiars in stories his grandfather told him. When Jake grew up, he started to believe that none of that would be true and propably a metaphor for his grandfathers life back in World War II, being a jewish refugee from Poland saved by Miss Peregrine and her home for children.
When his grandfather dies under mysterious circumstances he gives Jake a few strange clues. No one believes in what Jake saw that night, everyone thinks he is traumatized by what happened and very fragile. Yet, he manages to convince his parents to go visit Cairnholm, the tiny island in Wales where Miss Peregrines Home for Children is located. There, he gets into the time loop Miss Peregrine made for September 3rd 1940, the day Wales got bombed, and meets all the people he thought were fairy tale characters, and his life changes forever - because he can see the hollows.

Ransom Riggs wrote his story around old photos he started collecting as a hobby, odd pictures of people long dead. All the photos and handwritten letters and drawings that illustrate the book make it a masterpiece and I recommend that everyone who is interested in history and likes to read slightly scary fantasy novels - please, please go read it!

So much for the book (yes, this is where things are going south).
When I finished the book, I went to see the movie. Since I read a movie-tie-in version (don't judge me, that was the one available right away), I already noticed from the movie pictures in the back that there were quite a few changes: Characters switched whole roles (two of them only kept their names but switched powers and personality), characters were made younger, and Eva Green looked quite different than the Miss Peregrine described in the books. Yet, I thought I'd give it a chance since I don't mind minor changes from the book too much.
I feel like the story was rushed very much in the movie. The book takes a lot of time for Jake to try and figure out wether or not what he's seen is real or imagination, and given that he IS in fact traumatized (of course he is) I would have wished for a bit more mental health care for him in the movie as well since dealing with trauma is an important topic of the book and for actual real life people who might be in the audience. Another thing that was rushed was Jakes relationship with Emma (a pyrokinese girl in the book, a airbending girl in the movie). The book took a lot of time for this relationship to grow naturally, Emma being sceptical at first of Jake, Jake being reluctant to date a girl who used to date his grandfather (remember, we're in a time loop), both being shy around each other and so on. That was something I really enjoyed while reading. In the movie, no one is sceptical, and basically, they kiss because they are a girl and a boy so they naturally have to (insert looooong moan here). The characters in general seem very much set in their personalities and thus, the movie is lacking some serious character developement. Dear hollywood, this is the fun part of a story!
Overall, everything seems a little over the top, especially Miss Peregrine who talks like a puppet and keeps staring at everyone like she is about to eat them.
The end was propably designed in case there was no second movie made, thus, we get an admittedly funny final fight between the Peculiars and the Wights and Hollows, yet, it seems a bit like Kevin from Home Alone dealing with the Wet Bandits: Nice booby traps, but given their enemies are supposed to be actually dangerous and deadly, I'd expected a more epic show-down.

Briefly, I'd say: The movie on it's own is okay, as a movie adaption it's a shame. Please, do yourself a favour and either read the book before seeing the movie or do not let the movie stop you from reading the book. It is actually A LOT better.

Bridget Jones's Baby - Review

Bridget Jones is iconic. The walking chaos of a woman that struggles with overweight, her cigarette addiction, her fondness to alcohol, her carrier and of course her lovelife is a legend. Four books and two movies were published so far following Bridget through her chaotic life trying to be a better person. Now, we have movie number three.

The very beginning of Bridget Jones's Baby already makes a lovely reference to the first movie and the iconic scene of Bridget (Renee Zellweger) all alone in her apartment in London lip-syncing „All by myself“, but that path is broken again very quickly when she decides to put on another song and have actual fun instead of pitying herself once again – that's right, Bridget has grown, she is a lot more selfconfident, yet loveably awkward in her selfconfidence. We see a woman in her early fourties, she managed to have her desired weight and she stopped smoking, she is succesful in her job as a TV producer, her colleagues like her, but she is still single – which doesn't seem to be a problem at all. Only her friends, all married and parents, remind her that they have something that she doesn't and that she admits to truly want. Still, this Bridget can wait, this Bridget lives for the moment, this Bridget decides that first of all, she wants to have sex, nothing romantic. She finds that with Jack Qwant (Patrick Dempsey), an American guy she meets at a music festival – and a few days later with her ex Mark Darcey (Colin Firth), who is going to divorce his wife and admits to missing her. So far, so good, but Bridgets idea of safe sex is age-old vegan condoms that have been in her purse forever and that are more than expired, and lucky as she is, she ends up pregnant.

She tells both men about her situation but misses to mention that she isn't exactly sure who the father is. Both are delighted and see a possible future with Bridget. When they find out about each other, both try their best to help her throughout her pregnancy, each in their own way. The still very starched Mark and the free-spirited Jack are perfect opposites and thus passive-aggressively try to win Bridget over.

Inbetween all that, a new boss has taken over the TV show that Bridget works for, and Bridget has to work even harder to adapt to the new, hip and trendy ideas that are now the image of her workplace.

Let's talk details: London has changed since the early 2000s, and it is portraied perfectly in the movie, from the more subtle streetfood carts that are placed in the background in front of Bridgets place to the right in your face hipsters with bowties, beards and buns that are her new colleagues. This is also a really good method to show that Bridget is becoming older, additionally to the fact that instead of dinner parties she is going to christenings. Bridget Jones is not fully up to date anymore – and that's okay.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Another great point is that we see the funeral of Daniel Cleaver. With that, a perfectly reasonable explaination is given to why he isn't in this movie and he gets a last hoorah with loads of young, beautiful women that are all a bit alienated by all the other young, beautiful women attending.

Mark is still working as an attorney, this time he is defending a band of young women that are a reference to the Russian punk band Pussy Riot. Not once, the issue is mocked, but rather the ways the band fights for their rights (being loud and sometimes naked) and the way no one really seems to actually care what they are fighting for (Mark doesn't particularily like their ways but tries really hard to make clear that free speech and womens rights are serious topics).

Last but not least: Bridget marries Mark, the father to her son, at the end of the movie – and the couple is still good friends with Jack. It is great to see this love triangle being resolved peacefully and no one being the actual bad guy – another thing that shows how much the characters have grown.

END OF SPOILERS

Overall, this is the new Bridget that has changed but still stayed herself. She became older, London became hipper, but the charme of early-2000s British rom-com has been preserved well into the 2010s. It surely wouldn't be beating a dead horse to make yet another Bridget Jones movie showing her as a chaotic mother and wife – because if there is one thing not dead, it is Bridget Jones.