Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Review

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Newt Scamander: "My philosophy is: worrying means you suffer twice."

    "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" is directed by David Yates ("Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1" and "Part 2") and stars Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, Katherine Waterston as Tina Goldstein, Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski, Alison Sudol as Queenie Goldstein, Colin Farrell as Percival Graves, Ezra Miller as Credence Barebone, Carmen Ejogo as President Seraphina Picquery, Samantha Morton as Mary Lou Barebone, Ron Pearlman as Gnarlack, Jon Voight as Henry Shaw, Sr., Josh Cowdery as Henry Shaw, Jr., and Ronan Raftery as Langdon Shaw.

Three muggles walk into a pub...

     The wizarding world in 1926 America is on the cusp of being exposed to the No-Majes (non magical people) due to unexplained beasts and dark wizards roaming the New York City streets. Enter a magical creature enthusiast, Newt Scamander, with his suitcase filled with magical creatures and all hell breaks loose in the city. His case accidentally is opened by soon-to-be-friend of Newt, Jacob Kowalski, a No-Maj who gets sucked into this new underground world that wizards and witches have been hiding. Investigator Tina Goldstein lets Newt know that he is in big trouble for bringing creatures into the city and could potentially be executed. She, Newt, Jacob, and Queenie, Tina's sister, now are forced to run around the city that never sleeps to find and capture these creatures before someone hurts them. Eventually, a dark and evil force interrupts their hunt to safely put the creatures back in the suitcase: Gellert Grindelwald. This force may be their biggest challenge yet to help save the city and the world.

This guy. If he ever comes near me, I swear I'll punch him in the bill and then pet him.

     Well, if "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" can teach people one thing, it's that a movie doesn't have to rely on previous information based in the same universe. This film takes place about 70 years before the "Harry Potter" stories were ever a thing. This means that a chance could've been taken to remind us that those books/movies will happen. Almost like they HAVE to make sure that we aren't too stupid to follow the story in the film we're watching. Good thing that "Fantastic Beasts" doesn't do that. It takes it time to consider what parts could work by bringing in the lore from the "Harry Potter" plots and what parts could use original and creative ingredients. J.K. Rowling wrote the screenplay to this film. It's eye-opening to see what how versatile this woman's creative mind is like. Congrats to Miss Rowling and the crew for creating an atmosphere like no other: a world of literal magic. She and director David Yates, who also is committed to making a good movie on its own, bring characters and creatures to life in interactions that would, for sure, fail in any other hands. Seeing Eddie Redmayne magnificently portraying a humble, yet hurt individual and Dan Fogler portraying the everyday, yet incredibly likable No-Maj holding a plant-like creature (that's cute as hell, by the way) makes me feel like a kid. It really makes me want to go home and draw or describe monsters that are kind and scary. "Fantastic Beasts" simply brought out the kid in me that wants to imagine.

This picture doesn't do his delightful aura justice. The little guy is amazing!

     Now, I'm only describing the "Beasts" part of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". What I unfortunately couldn't get over was that this movie is basically two movies on one. Films that take that approach can accomplish feats like that, but in here, it feels like plot is a bit overwhelming with material. "Fantastic Beasts" is trying to create a franchise like "Harry Potter". There are going to be five of these movies. FIVE! For the most part, I can say I'm excited, considering that every "Harry Potter" film to me was great (some better than others, but still great). I'm just worried that the upcoming sequels of this film will lose track of how to progress the plotline further. This is fault of J.K. Rowling, but not because of a creative issue, rather because of a technical issue. All in all, I had a tremendous amount of fun with "Fantastic Beasts", though. The point of how the main plotline will go with the villain that terrorizes the wizarding world needs to be addressed to fit the it's particular film's surroundings. In this case, the surrounding elements of the story were the creatures being let loose in New York City.

Tina: "Shh. No one will notice our mistake."

Me: "Yeah, well, I can see you pretty clearly."

     "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" captured a memory in  me that makes me happy to see a beautiful imagination run wild. J.K. Rowling truly knows how to set up a world and it's belongings. The talent in portrayals of the characters are on par with the quality of the creature designs, let alone the interactions with them that are sometimes cute or horrifying in the best ways possible. Hopefully J.K. can just get it together with her building of Grindelwald's plans to kill people and I'll be a cheerful muggle, or No-Maj to us Americans.

4.5/5

PRO

• Another imaginative creation of J.K. Rowling
• Performances of actors/actresses (and creatures) are charming
• Lore of "Harry Potter" films isn't necessary to carry this movie 

CON

• Structure of two main plots doesn't work here

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" is rated PG-13 for some fantasy action violence

Click here to watch the trailer

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" is in theaters everywhere now

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