Halloween. The favorite holiday of witches and wizards, of ghosts and ghouls, of vampires and werewolves. The favorite holiday for anyone who wants to pretend to be someone else for a day. To live in a fictional character’s clothes. To walk in a fictional character’s shoes. As I sit here, periodically getting up to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters (I myself am not in costume), I’m wondering where in the world did the time go. The last time I published an article on FictionRow was six months ago. Half a year. I can’t believe that, but it’s true. My only excuse is that I’m a ridiculously busy human being, and the only person writing for this little website is me, myself and I, so if I can’t find the time and motivation to write, it’s simply not going to happen. However, we’re starting to get closer and closer to the movies that I’ve been excited about all year, so I suppose I should return.
Which movies am I most excited about, you ask? Well, allow me to list them:
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
That’s it? Yeah, that’s it. If a movie doesn’t belong to one of my few favorite fandoms, I need a good reason to go see it. Fantastic Beasts comes out in 18 days, and I couldn’t be more excited. We’ve had eight Harry Potter movies, but the plot is very student-centric and very British-centric. That was fine when I myself was a student with an affinity for all things British. However, now that I’m an adult, I want a movie with adult characters who have the ability to perform magic.
As for Star Wars, I’m probably more excited for Rogue One than I am for Episode VIII, out next year. Why? Because I’ve always found the Star Wars prequels to be disappointing. Sure, the graphics were great, but the script was poorly written. For more on my thoughts about the prequels, read my “Prequels vs Originals” article. When I tell people how much I hate the prequels, the most common response I get is, “Even Episode III?” I reply, “Yes! Especially Episode III!” Episode III does such a poor job bridging the gap to Episode IV. Seeing the originals-era helmets in the last few minutes is particularly jarring. Finally, we get to see a movie with current-generation graphics and with what I hope will be a spectacular storyline.
Before I get too excited about seeing (and reviewing) Rogue One, I should probably write my review for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which I never did last year, along with several other things I didn’t review, but should:
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- Pottermore Presents books
- Other Pottermore Updates
- Mockingjay, Part 2
I found The Force Awakens difficult to write about, because it’s so good that my words could never do it justice. I found Mockingjay, Part 2 difficult to write about for the opposite reason: I didn’t care for it, but I’m not sure why.
I have so much to say about Cursed Child and Pottermore that it’s going to take a while for those articles too.
Anyway, it is my goal to write at least a dozen articles between now and 2017. So stay tuned. Welcome back.
