Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

5/10

Starring

Eddie Redmayne

Katherine Waterson

Dan Fogler

Alison Sudol

Colin Farrell

Directed by David Yates

For lack of better words, “I don’t know.”

I don’t know how I feel sitting through a long ride of the magic world acting rather dumb.
I don’t know how I feel about the many, many magical creatures that this movie never ran out of.
I don’t know how I feel about the acting of the lead and the supporting cast.
I don’t know if this movie will make it through a trilogy and if I would want to see such a trilogy.
I don’t know if I can say J.K. Rowling has mastered the act of screenwriting, but for a first-timer, good attempt.

What I do know is this was a long ride of a movie which, as a Harry Potter fan, I was hoping to enjoy for the desire of not seeing children learning magic, but adults who have mastered it. The movie had that, which is why I will give it a 5, but the story that surrounded it was not captivating enough.

The movie did have many scenes where I got to see wonderful magical events, but after dealing with the ending of Doctor Strange (2016) the day before—where all the villain had to do was ignore Strange and his silly time loop, avoid killing him, and just take over the world—here is another ending where the villain just had to ignore the hero.

(Spoiler Alert)
The man behind all the chaos in the movie was in disguise from the people of the magic world. The lead, Newt, and his fighting companion Tina were the ones who knew he had bad intentions. When the problem was allegedly destroyed by the Aurors, the villain got mad and exposed himself.

I watched wondering, why did he do this?
This is an act you would expect in a children’s book, but Rowling, who is writing this for a more mature audience, could have found a better way to expose the disguised villain.

Visually captivating? The answer will be yes.
This movie was visually captivating, and although it looked like groundwork for a bigger story with the introduction of Johnny Depp as the lead villain, I have to say Warner Bros.’ first Harry Potter movie had a better intro to this.

In this movie, we are introduced to a new set of characters, with four being the main focus. They are led by Newt Scamander (a magizoologist) who came to America to release a creature native to the country. He is the future author of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry textbook, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. He is accompanied by a demoted/former Auror, Tina, who was in search of a way to regain her position as an Auror. She pursued Newt when she noticed he released some creatures into the outside world. At present, America is under attack by what the magical world believes to be magical creatures. Tina thought Newt was the person responsible.

Along for the ride was Jacob Kowalski, a Muggle whom Newt met in the bank when he was trying to catch a creature he mistakenly allowed to escape. Kowalski and Newt later became friends as they went together to hunt down Newt’s creatures that got out of his zoo suitcase. The group also had a fourth party in Queenie (Tina’s sister), an accomplished Legilimens who had taken a liking to Kowalski.

The movie is about the discovery of the creature terrorizing the Muggles and responsible for the death of one.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is not a movie I will be looking forward to seeing the next part of.