David Yates to direct, JK Rowling to script write all sequels

Entertainment shows Eddie Redmayne, left, and Katherine Waterston in a scene from, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”. Working with veteran “Potter” director David Yates and starring Oscar victor Eddie Redmayne, the author has delivered a handsome but disjointed introduction to Newt Scamander, a British wizard who travels the world in pursuit of magical creatures.

Newt (Eddie Redmayne at his Eddie Redmayneiest, all shy grins and upward-turned eyes beneath a mop of tousled hair) is a wizard and magizoologist – someone who studies magical creatures and, in Newt’s case, collects them.

The ideal start to the holiday season, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” will transport you to the land of Newt Scamander’s wizardry and enchantment.

Seventy years before Harry Potter picks up Newt Scamander’s (Eddie Redmayne) textbook on magical creatures at school, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them follows Scamander as he journeys to NY in the 1920s. “Then I wrote a story, then I banged out a screenplay, which I thought they would give to someone more competent, and they said, “Nah, you can do that”.

The first film to imagine the Harry Potter universe without Harry Potter is a dark allegory of fear and xenophobia in America. In the new film, anti-magic sentiment grows among No-Majs as the wizarding world is divided about whether or not to stay in hiding. “It just placed you in this world very definitely”, said Colin Farrell, who plays ‘Percival Graves”.

Fantastic Beasts gets 7/10. Whilst keeping to the distinct charm of the original films, Fantastic Beasts is still an entirely different experience: It’s part Pokemon with its “catch ’em all” spirit as we’re introduced from creature to creature, each with their own unique set of magical skills.

Students at a St Albans drama school know all about Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them which is opening in local cinemas tomorrow. Not an easy feat for such a family-friendly film. It’s so overused Hollywood by now and then to see ‘Fantastic Beasts’ use this filmmaking crutch…total deal breaker. With Johnny Depp cast as Grindelwald and a young Dumbledore confirmed for the sequel, this story is likely to be crucial in the upcoming films. The problem is Rowling’s borderline-incomprehensible writing, exacerbated by medicore direction by David Yates, who added little to the last four Potter movies. Depending on the viewer’s knowledge of the Wizarding World, one could perceive “Fantastic Beasts” as a fun movie about sorcery or the prologue to a grander chapter in the history of magic.