'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' stars Eddie Redmayne, Colin Farrell, Dan Fogler, Katherine Waterston and Ezra Miller. The film follows Newt Scamander, a magizoologist who in 1926 travels to New York, and accidentally releases some of his fantastic beasts.
I must preface this article by saying that I am a huge fan of the Harry Potter franchise. I read all the books when I was a kid, and have seen all the movies at least 5 times each (probably underselling it, to be honest). Naturally, I was very excited that the franchise would continue, and was extra excited that J.K. Rowling would be writing the screenplay! With everything 'Fantastic Beasts', I was pretty worried that there was nothing it could do to live up to the hype, and I'm happy to report that I was not disappointed!
The performances in this movie were pretty rock solid across the board. Eddie Redmayne did a very good job in the lead role of Newt Scamander. I really bought into the fact that he had great love for these creatures that maybe the rest of the wizarding world did not fully appreciate. Dan Fogler also really surprised me in this movie. In past movies, he can be kind of annoying, usually playing a pretty stereotypical fat guy/comic relief type, but he really exceeded that in this movie. He was easily the funniest character in the movie, and actually showed a lot of heart and was extremely likable. Colin Farrell was also really good in this movie, albeit he's not in the movie quite as much as I would like.
In terms of the 'Fantastic Beasts', it was a little hit or miss. Some of them (one in particular) steal the show. The ones that do are likable and fun, and definitely add to the movie, but there are a few that came off as kind of silly and pointless. The beasts definitely aren't a negative to the movie, but I think some of them should be left out of the sequel.
My biggest problem that I had while watching this movie was the location. As much as I'm a fan of the fact that they are trying to do something different from the original Harry Potter films, I couldn't help myself from being underwhelmed by the New York setting, simply because it's not Hogwarts. It's not that New York wasn't interesting; it did have some interesting new aspects, but the film really had an impossible task: living up to the magic of Hogwarts. They tried their best, but I'm not sure there is anything they can really do in that regard. Hogwarts is simply the best.
Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. There are some pacing issues and some of the elements are a little underwhelming, but I thought that rest of the film worked pretty perfectly. It really hit the tone of the original Harry Potter films very well, and is a solid entry into the franchise. If you were a fan of the original franchise, I definitely think this movie is worth seeing in theaters!
Final Grade: B+
