I didn't get a chance to see this in the theater (That flying stage coach scene much have been awesome on the big screen) but have watched the dvd a couple times this week and honestly like this movie.
That twist with Queenie was a shocker, but not as "impossible" as some have argued. Her first conversations in London with Newt and the then "no longer enchanted" Jacob were very telling.
First... she and Tina were
not talking.
That's a huge deal.
Queenie and Tina are orphans thanks to the Dragon Pox (IIRC) and Tina is Queenie's only family.
"We have each other" Queenie explained to Newt and Jacob in that small NYC apartment last year, but as of this moment in time they don't "
have each other". In fact she is alone. Tina has left for Paris and Jacob keeps resisting her plans to add him officially to their family.
"Why is it wrong to marry me? To want to have a family? I just want what every one else has, that's all."
So now that Queenie no longer "has" Jacob, she runs to Paris. To the only family she has left, the disapproving Tina. But once there she finds Tina is MIA and she's truly alone. Alone in a foreign city, unable to speak the language and uncertain where else to go. She thinks she hears Jacob and Newt but as she stretches her mind to find them, all she hears is the cacophony of thousands of unintelligible voices and sinks down in despair, unable to blot them out.
Until someone reaches out a hand and asks if she's alright, in that language she can't understand but in a tone that is gentle and sympathetic.
Queenie needs a respite but she's also a New Yorker so she is initially mistrustful of the aggressive teapot and its owner, even now that she speaks English.
"You see, I can't tell if you're making a joke or if you're just... French."
I loved that the first thing our Queenie does when she sees Grindlewald is pull her wand!
"You stay right there. I know what you are."
But the former "Auror Percival Graves" knows this woman too and the seduction begins.
You are so very very far away from home. Far away from everything you love, everything that is comfortable. I would never see you harmed. Ever.
And the wedge between her and her rock (Tina) is gently placed.
It is not your fault that your sister is an auror. I wish you were working with me now, towards a world where we wizards were free to live openly. To love freely.
Then he hooks her... by setting her free.
You are an innocent. So go now. Leave this place.
Poor Queenie, she's still alone in the French city, unable to speak the language, unsure where to go and her sister's arch enemy has just freed her without conditions but with a thought that soothes her.
Live openly and love freely. In New York, with Jacob and Tina wouldn't have to disapprove.
We started Queenie's sojourn with her clumsy attempt to enchant Jacob, but little did she realize she herself would become enchanted with a master at the craft until she too became "deeply committed".
Everyone in this movie is searching.
Leta for absolution for her monstrous soul. Creedance for knowledge about his origins. Newt, Queenie, Tina and Jacob for the people right in front of them, Grindlewald for someone to kill Dumbledore and release him from their blood vow, and Albus for a way to break that same blood vow and loosen the hold his constant companion (regret) has upon his heart.
The "problem" with the 2nd movie in a series is that by nature it cannot be a stand alone story. It has to lay groundwork to catapult us to the next chapter. Our problem is there are not any novels out there, released 2-3 years before the film was made, to fill us in on all the wonderful details that fleshed out the story, details we will later complain about vociferously when they are inevitably left OUT of the movies (Peeves the poltergeist) due to time constraints.
I did like this movie and can't wait for the next.
I have chosen my side.
is what the set designer put in the defense against the dark arts classroom. He described it as a brass "telescope" in one of the featurettes on the DVD, but in fact its a grotesquely enlarged brass microscope.
