Had a bit of a movie marathon over the last week. I finally watched Doctor Strange, Rouge One, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Watched the first two on Amazon Prime and bought the last title on BluRay.
I really enjoyed all of them!
I was somewhat unsure about Doctor Strange. I had not been overly impressed with the trailers for the movie but he's always been one of my favorite Marvel characters so I had to give him a chance. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Although updated, I think they captured his "origin story" really well, and incorporated a lot of the psychedelic imagery of the original comics. I was unsure about Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange, but I think he nailed it and I loved the performances of Tilda Swenson and Benedict Wong, too. I'll definitely be looking forward to a sequel to this one.
I'd been looking forward to Star Wars spin-off, Rogue One and overall I was fairly satisfied with it. I thought the new characters were all interesting and the actors did great jobs with them, particularly Felicity Jones. I applaud their efforts at incorporating the two deceased actors from the original trilogy into this one, but I just don't think that the technology is quite there yet, resulting in my getting thrown out of the movie experience a little whenever they made an appearance. Having managed to totally avoid any spoilers for the movie, I was quite surprised at them killing off everyone by the end of the movie. Given Hollywood, I was expecting this to be followed by a sequel or two, but obviously not. At least not direct sequels, I suppose given the success of this film we will probably more Star Wars spin offs to come. ;)
Finally, after the disappointment of the Cursed Child storyline, Fantastic Beasts was a very welcome surprise. I think they made a wise decision to distance themselves from the original Harry Potter storyline and introduce not only a whole new cast, but a whole new setting. I thought Redmayne did a great job as the slightly odd social misfit. Sudol's character was a hoot, and I thought that Fogler's portrayal of the bewildered "no-maj" was one of the highlights of the film. This film, I think, was able to recapture the "sense of wonder" that I found missing from the last couple books and movies of the Potter series. This is another one I will be looking forward eagerly to the next sequel.
Well, that's all for new. I do have a number of other movies to get caught up one if I can ever find the time!