Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

The Warner Bros. film, a spinoff of the hugely popular J.K. Rowling franchise, brought in an estimated $218 million at box offices around the world this weekend.

Rowling’s new story fleshes out that book, and the endearing, self-proclaimed “magizoologist” who pens it, as Scamander spends his life researching all the Fantastic Beasts he can find. The day is finally here, but what is the finished product like? Overall, Fantastic Beasts has its moments, and for the really big Rowling fans out there-well who cares it’s not like they need a review to decide. Old-era NY is intoxicating, the costuming delightful, and the eponymous creatures as cute as any I’ve seen in a magical realm. It centers on the book’s supposed author, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), a magizoologist who arrives in NY with a suitcase full of critters and plans to release one into its native habitat in Arizona.

While Fantastic Beasts definitely stands separate to the Harry Potter franchise, the movie still packed full of wonderful Easter Eggs and references which tie to both that and the larger Wizarding World in what looks set to be a big new franchise.

Eddie Redmayne’s grandma “always knew” he’d play a wizard.

The supporting cast, Katherine Waterston, Colin Farrell, Ezra Miller, and Dan Fogler play their characters well. In the case of Credence, who’s a teenager, his obscurus is able to ravage New York City.

Unfortunately, the special effects occasionally let the film down.

There’s a whole lot of movie going on here – and more than enough groundwork to carry a fresh franchise sure to be populated with wizards of varying moral stripe, “No-Majs” (the American version of Muggles, aka non-wizards) and, of course, fantastic beasts ranging from the tiny and whimsical to the enormous and ferocious to the dark and unsafe.

Variety reports that Fantastic Beasts is now forecasted to earn $75 million in its domestic opening weekend, with Thursday night/Friday estimates totaling around $30 million. The first hour is unacceptably slow, the plot continuously dragging its heels as it sets up the side story to Redmayne’s creature feature. The sequels are in the works so I’m getting ready for many more years of Wizards, Beasts, and Magic.

He said: “here was this unbelievable shop called Davenports-the kind of shop where real magicians buy their tricks, the sort of place where you could buy the equipment to saw someone in half”. The twists and turns that the script takes the audience on making it genuinely exciting.

This is the film is inspired by a textbook that was first seen in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in 2001. But Fantastic Beasts sucked me in right away for two reasons. And lo and behold, Alison’s one of us!