Since Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part II was released on July 17, 2011 and moved the world into tears of sadness and joy at an incredible and epic finale to the phenomenal story of The Boy Who Lived, J.K. Rowling has consciously distributed new material both in and out of the Potterverse. When her first post-Potter novel The Casual Vacancy was released with her name imprinted on the cover, it received mixed reviews. Not necessarily because it was poorly written, but because readers couldn’t help but think of the magic and carefully crafted descriptions of the enchanting world of wizards in a book that was completely separate from that. So for her next novel, she changed her strategy and did what many famous authors have done in the past and created a pseudonym. Her alias, Robert Galbraith, was the author of the murder mystery The Cuckoo’s Calling, which caught great acclaim and intrigue from critics. Of course, being in the social media age and Rowling being the most famous writer in the world, her secret didn’t last and the book became instantly popular.
So after writing a couple of independent novels, Rowling inevitably expanded the world of Harry Potter, but not in the way she did the first time. Instead of writing a new Harry Potter book or series that would have been nit-picked and scrutinized by fans, she chose other forms of medium in theater and film. Her sequel, Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, became an exclusive London play and the manuscript was sold worldwide. And a prequel/spin-off called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was released in theaters on November 25 with her as the screenwriter.
A legitimate reason as to why Rowling has been careful about what form and stories to distribute her sacred brand is that she does not want to go down the path George Lucas went with Star Wars. For those who don’t know, Lucas made a little science fiction film that turned into the biggest pop-culture phenomenon of all-time. He was treated like a God for creating the original trilogy in the late 1970s and 1980s, but into the 1990s his relationship with the fans turned sour. First he butchered the original films by adding heavy edits to the rereleased films, and then let down a huge portion of fans by directing the Star Wars prequel trilogy which was considered to have tainted the brand and oversaturated the spirit of what made Star Wars great. He was crucified for years before ultimately selling the rights to Star Wars to Disney a few years ago.
That is not a path J.K. Rowling wants to go with her beloved franchise, so instead of releasing a book that will undoubtedly draw comparisons to the classic series, she’s using film, theater, and the internet to spread the brand but keep the spirit of the Potterverse intact. Which leads us to the review of the first Potter-related film in five years with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
When first watching the opening credits of the film the chills for Potter fans undoubtedly comes through as they listen to the opening notes of John Williams’s famous score. However, that is one of only a few callbacks to the original film series, as Fantastic Beasts takes place in New York City in the year 1926. Even though most Americans are well aware of New York and have a notion of life during the Prohibition era, it feels as if we are aliens in the American wizard world. Potter fans know everything about the Wizard World in England, but what about our home country? Quite frankly it felt somewhat difficult to care about the Wizard World in America before most of the characters we know are even born. But as the film feels itself out and we get to know these new characters in this unfamiliar part of the Wizard World, it becomes interesting and intriguing. And instead of the Ministry of Magic, the American Wizard government is the Magical Congress of the United States of America, meaning that their government is the same system as America has to this day. And just to point out, the Wizard president is a woman. A black woman. With a turban. In 1926. Yep, just saying. The wizards know progress.
The only character readers of the books know that is mentioned in this film is the dark wizard Grindelwald, who was the pre-cursor to Voldemorte and had a famous duel with Albus Dumbledore. The character the audience will naturally attach to (being English and a former Hogwarts professor) is Newt Scamander played by well-known British actor Eddie Redmayne, who won an Oscar winner for playing Stephen Hawking and was also in Les Miserables. Redmayne has both the charm and quirkiness of a misfit Hogwarts student with a fixation on protecting magical creatures in his small suitcase along with a heart of gold. Scamander is the leader of the new gang with an American witch and former Auror in Tina Goldstein (played by Katherine Waterson), her flapper and blonde bombshell younger sister Queenie Goldsien, and finally the American muggle (or No-Maj as they call them in the states) Jacob Kowalski played by Dan Fogler. Kowalski, a burly New Yorker with a thick accent and mustache who could be a long distant cousin of the Dudleys, is arguably the most sympathetic and likable of the characters because of his comic relief, genuine shock and awe of the magic he witnesses, and the tragic element knowing that his experience in the Wizard World can’t last.
The main plot of the story is that Scamander has come from England to New York with a suitcase of magical creatures before running into Kowalski and Tina Goldstein in a bank where a few of his magical creatures escape and wreak havoc on New York. At the same time an extremist anti-wizard group led by Mary Lou Barebone (Samantha Morton) who throws her hat into the Dolores Umbridge award for Queen Bitch of the Year. Barebone and her mysterious adopted children spread throughout the city believing they are the Second-Salemers, while her disturbed adopted son Credence (Ezra Miller) puts himself in cahoots with high ranking wizard Percival Graves (Colin Farrell) to find a child wizard with great power.
It is not until the part where it goes into Scamander’s suitcase of creatures that the movie picks up and becomes engaging. Displaying beautiful CGI creatures inside the vast world of his case, the action and drama picks up from there as the gang travels around the Big Apple to capture the creatures while being on the run from the MACUSA and uncovering the dark powers terrorizing the city. And perhaps the highlight (and somewhat controversial) moment of the film is a shocking cameo (It’s not Dumbledore, sorry) that indicates there will be a sequel to the film.
David Yates, the director the last four Harry Potter films, returns to the chair to direct this. And while it’s good to have ole’ reliable back the set, it would have been nice for a new director to take over and put a refreshing vision into this world akin to what the great Alfonso Cuaron did for The Prisoner of Azkaban. So overall, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find to Them won’t leave fans blown away, but has enough charm and visuals to satisfy them and look forward to future films. As a first-time screenwriter, J.K. Rowling likely had to deal with the challenges of limiting the story to a ninety minute to two hour film instead of the free range that the books offer, a debatable issue that goes back all the way to the very first Harry Potter movie in 2001. As the beginning of a potential new film franchise, it’s a promising start.
