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.

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.