Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Review

PG13: Some Fantasy Action Violence

Warner Bros. Pictures, Heyday Films

2 Hrs and 13 Minutes
    
Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Carmen Ejogo, Colin Farrell, Matthew Lewis

REVIEW: Back in 2011, fans had to say goodbye to Harry Potter but we weren’t ready to say goodbye to the Wizarding World of it. Warner Bros. knew that fans weren’t ready either, so they announced a prequel/spinoff based on J.K Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them novel with a film of the same name. Even J.K Rowling signed on to pen the screenplay by herself too. I was ready to go back to J.K’s world of wizardry and after watching this first installment I’m begging for more.

The year is 1926, and Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident, were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt's fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.

THE GOOD: In all honesty, I feared after David Yates’ epic fail with The Legend of Tarzan in July, it would also apply to Fantastic Beasts. But luckily since Yates has dabbled with a lot of Harry Potter films including arguably the best ones, he knows how to capture the visuals of the wizard world like the back of hands. When he goes away from wizards he loses his magic but bring him back to his roots, he dazzles you like never before. It's very similar to 2012 when Tim Burton failed with Dark Shadows but shined with Frankenweenie later that year, because it was his stop-motion roots When you watch this film you feel like you’re experiencing an organically fresh new world within the one we’re all familiar with way before the events of those films happened. You are taken into post-WWI and the film sticks with it. From the production design of New York and the amazing costumes, Yates brings you back to the 1920s and allows it to seem as much fun as much as Luhrmann’s Great Gatsby did. The film is so invested with it’s Jazz Age that it has a Great Gatsby moment but with Trolls, Goblins, and House Elves.

The visuals are breathtaking. They introduce creatures with imaginative designs adapted from the art of the 2001 novel and have them interact with the live action world. At times it seems a bit too CG’d with characters touching and petting creatures but it barely seems like they are doing it at all, but at other times it manages to look detailed and realistic. All of these creatures' designs are all taken from the novel and pretty much colored. They even use some of them as plot devices for this story being so adventurous and whimsical.

The cast in the film are a ton of fun. Eddie Redmayne takes off his Oscar cap and delivers a fun and incredibly charming performance as Newt Scamander. He’s so charismatic and committed to this character of being a zoologist that there’s a scene where he gets silly. The difference is that for the realms of this film it works whenever he gets silly. It’s not as silly as his character from Jupiter Ascending, where you’re laughing at him but instead, you’re laughing with him. Collin Farrell does a great job as being the Collin Farrell you don’t wanna mess around with. But major kudos to the film for bringing back Dan Fogler and making him actually lovable. Remember in March of 2011 where Dan Fogler was everywhere for no reason? Well, this film makes you forget all that for he is the audience’s avatar where we are experiencing magic like it is the first time through his eyes. He’s tagged along for this journey where he’s both cool and funny. When he’s fascinated by the world within the briefcase so are you. They even set him with this romantic subplot with a wizard that actually works that by the end it catches your heart.

For an over 2 hour and 15 minute film, it goes by so fast that it leaves you wanting more excited for the next installment of the five-part series. The screenplay is as whimsically innocent as the first Harry Potter film. It has some darker elements here and there which work for some interesting character development for Newt and Tina for the most part. These are characters that are known from little but Rowling’s screenplay allows them to become fully developed. It is Rowling’s world and nobody could write stories like her other than herself. She knows how to grasp the audiences’ attention and keep a story movie with all the elements of action, danger, whimsy, and cleverness between likable characters. The film moves along like a Pokemon game where you have to catch all these creatures that have been accidentally released which leads to entertainingly cool sequences that need to be experienced in 3D. The film sets you in this world that never reminds you of Harry Potter that is able to engage both audiences unfamiliar with the world and the ones who are. It sets itself so far away from that world as much Puss In Boots tried to set itself away from the world of Shrek while being able to accomplish its own thing. Even the new score by James Newton Howard doesn’t make you reminisce of John Williams’ Harry Potter score at all even though the marketing uses it to familiarize you. It is a spinoff that sets you back into the world and has you wanting more.

THE BAD: As much as the film follows this wonder of whimsy, for the last act unfortunately goes back into the generic big blockbuster final showdown city destruction. Though these wizards are able to "Men In Black" people and able to put it back together, a lot of destruction that feels like blockbuster filler. What makes it even worse is that a twist is followed by the last action sequence where it tries to set up the future films but nearly destroying everything this one built in the process. If you have been following the news about the sequel, you can easily guess what the twist is. There is even a plot line that is dropped after a turn is revealed that when it needs explanation they try to sophistically make up an excuse.

As much J.K Rowling wrote enough to make you feel as if you’re visualizing a book, the story gets a bit repetitious at times where you go on from set piece to set piece catching these creatures where it follows the same blueprint. Running, mayhem, visual gag, capture, punchline. This occurs nearly 4 times, but the film always attempts to take a different spin with each creature that is caught.

LAST STATEMENT:  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a thoroughly fun, innovative, and crowd pleasing new look at the Wizarding World that only J.K Rowling masters at writing and David Yates masters in directing.

Rating: 3.5/5  78%

Super Scene: Jacob sees the world within in the briefcase.