Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Review

And the final reveal, while fun thanks to a surprise cameo, is a bit too obvious in its attempt at setting up film No. 2. Entertainment shows Eddie Redmayne in a scene from, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”. The film is set seven decades before the infamous Harry Potter was born and follows Newt Scamander, a magizoologist who travels to NY with a briefcase full of magical creatures. This attracts the attention of Magical Congress auror Tina (Katherine Waterson), who attempts to arrest him. Look for cool stuff to read in the Written by J.K. Rowling section. To save himself and his new friends, Newt must round up his magical menagerie before they can cause – or come to – any harm.

This is all necessary world-building, as it was in the first two “Potter” films.

There were of course notable highlights throughout. “Newt Scamander is a much, much more quirky and surprising hero than Harry Potter, and getting to explore his decidedly different 1920s wizarding community with its myriad issues felt exciting in a way that the “Potter” films – each of which faced colossal expectations from the books – did not”. The character’s quest may be interesting, but Redmayne’s choices are unnecessarily off-putting: his tiresome insistence on showing us how hard he’s acting has no place in a movie that’s supposed to be magical. Unfortunately, they cross paths with Percival Graves (Colin Farrell) and his partner Credence (Ezra Miller), who are keeping watch of all these goings-on for their own mysterious purposes. Those would be the fantastic beasts with which the film is concerned – they’re outlawed in the US magical world, which is strictly kept secret from the No-Majs (aka Muggles).

The various beasts are, true to the title, fantastic from a visual effects standpoint, and the overall production design is top notch, leaving viewers wanting to see more of this vintage place where secret agents pair wands with their fedoras. That said, the film still feels less like a well-constructed return to a beloved franchise, and more like your run-of-the-mill studio cash-grab.

Add in one charmingly goofy Muggle named Kowalski (good job, Dan Fogler), Tina’s zany sister, Queenie (Alison Sudol) and a classic, screwball comedy briefcase mix-up and suddenly fantastic beasts are taking over NY, which is a place we learn is far less progressive than one would hope. The studio’s long-term plans though make it tough to not question the intentions of all involved.

The first film to imagine the Harry Potter universe without Harry Potter is a dark allegory of fear and xenophobia in America. “Fantastic Beasts” was originally published as a faux Hogwarts textbook, so Rowling adapts it for the screen by showing its “author” at work, cleverly turning her thin, non-narrative glossary into an engaging adventure. Katherine Waterston is Aura Porpentina Goldstein. Dan Fogler as the “No-Maj” Jacob Kowalski gets the funniest moments which could have been quite ludicrous with another actor in the part.