I think the school was also pretty essential in grounding the story. It allowed Rowling to give a relatable core structure to her characters’ lives - they go to class! they live in dorms! each story takes place according to a yearly school calendar! - and then graft all of the fantasy elements onto that. After seeing…

You hit the nail on the head there: It was a boarding school story with magical trappings and was largely a pastiche of better stories.

“a traveling Egyptian community” - you mean “Gyptian.” 

New Line sold off the international profit rights to finance the movie, essentially betting everything on the US market where the books weren’t super well known, religious backlash was most intense, and movies with young female leads (pre-Hunger Games) rarely enjoyed much success. It... wasn’t a great plan.

This is literally not what the song is about. SHE DOESN’T WANT TO LEAVE.

It’s the time of the year for people to ignore context and dump on a sweet song again, woot!

It’s not even fucking Halloween yet.

“Dead Men Tell No Tales [...] global numbers still made it the most successful Pirates movie to date.”

I don’t think that’s correct that Part 5 was the most successful overall. It made almost $795 million globally but Parts 2 and 4 cracked $1 billion and Part 3 was close.

“downright rude”

I admire the hell out of these people. As for the various fuckheads I’ve seen online, who shamed them for publicly criticizing Weinstein, while whining about ‘upholding civility’ or whatever.... fuck ‘em. Learn to take a stand for what’s right, you spineless cowards.

Left-field pick:

Palpatine: Did I ever tell you the tragedy of Darth Pla-
Force Ghost Hayden Christensen: Oh boy, THIS again

Come on Nick Stahl. You’re better than this. Fire your agent, dude.

good to know Nick Stahl is still...alive.

God damn it, there’s an auto-play video when you scroll down to the comments that just starts blasting Circle of Life.

Man, the good old days of season 2 Arrow. Takes me back...

Yeah, good call.

Yes to Ray’s HUGE-ness

A little CGI would’ve cleared that right up, seamlessly.

Always odd seeing Superman with a moustache.