Summary:
A wizard named Newt Scamander journeys to New York in the 1926, only to accidentally become involved with a group of Wizards. Meanwhile, the evil Grindelwald wrecks havoc around the wizarding and muggle worlds alike.
My Thoughts:
I suppose this review, like any review I write that relates to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, should come with a bit of a disclaimer: Harry Potter was one of the most important series I ever read as a kid. It taught me to love reading, and it showed me a glimpse of how incredibly diverse and creative the genre of fantasy could be, and that series was really the start of my love of the fantasy genre as a whole. To say that I don’t come at these movies with a bit of a bias would be absolutely ridiculous; I absolutely do. That being said, I can also see that this series has quite a few flaws. While I’ve only given this film a 3/5 Star rating, I do really appreciate this film for what it is: an expansion of the wizarding world. As a story, I find this movie to be slightly scatterbrained, but I also believe that was entirely intentional, and while I didn’t love this film nearly as much as some of the other Harry Potter movies, I am actually quite excited for the sequels to this film (there are four sequels planned, and all of them are to be written by JK Rowling herself).
“So you’re the guy with the case full of monsters?”
Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne, “Theory of Everything”) arrives in New York carrying a briefcase filled with magical animals. As Newt explores the city, he happens upon a fundamentalist group called the Second Salemers, a group that condemns magic users. Among their numbers are the leader, Mary Lou Barebone (Samantha Morton, “Minority Report”), and her adopted son Credence (Ezra Miller, “Justice League”). Newt eventually runs into a muggle named Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler, “Fanboys”), with whom he accidentally swaps briefcases and in the process, allows some magical creatures to escape. Witness to the escaping animals is Porpentina ‘Tina’ Goldstein (Katherine Waterston, “Inherent Vice”), an American Witch and former auror. Tina arrests Newt and brings him into the ministry for questioning, but he is almost immediately let go after Tina talks to her boss Seraphina Picquery (Carmen Ejogo, “Selma”) and Percival Graves (Colin Ferrell, “In Bruges”). Tina and Newt eventually track down Kowalski and the three of them try to find the animals missing from Newt’s briefcase. Also, during this time, a senator Henry Shaw Jr. (Josh Cowdery, “Avengers”) is about to announce his campaign for presidency with the help of his father Henry Shaw Sr. (Jon Voight, “Midnight Cowboy”). Simultaneously, the wizarding community is being harassed and terrorized by the evil Grindelwald.
So as you probably gathered from the lengthy description of what happens in this film, there is a lot that goes on, and honestly the parts that we focus on in this film aren’t as interesting as the things hinted to come. In this movie we spend a lot of time getting to know our main character, Newt Scamander, the fictional author in JK Rowling’s world who published the book ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,’ which is essentially a bestiary for magical creatures. Redmayne as Scamander is perfectly likeable; he comes across as slightly eccentric and clumsy, but competent and intelligent. While Redmayne’s character is interesting, the things that he sets out to do aren’t as interesting as some of the other things we’ve already seen in this world. I think my biggest problem with this movie is that the last time we were in the Wizarding World, we watched the final showdown between Harry Potter and Voldemort, and now we follow around a glorified magical zookeeper. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to be back in the Wizarding world no matter what, but there were many scenes where I found myself getting bored watching Redmayne chase around a CGI magic-rhino or a platypus thing that steals money. The sequences are fun and entertaining for a while, but after the scenes continued to happen I found myself wondering what the point of this all was. The main plot eventually wanders into some darker territory, and that’s where the film saved itself in my opinion.
To me, this film is setting the groundwork for things to come in the future, where Rowling might use this platform to tell stories she’s always wanted to tell, and her fans are probably looking for. When Grindelwald’s name was mentioned in this film, I remember I grew very excited. Why? (Prepare for full nerd out) If you’ve read the Harry Potter books, then you might recall that Dumbledore was eventually forced to duel Grindelwald, in fact, that was one of the thing that made him so famous. It was also near this time that the original Order of the Phoenix was founded. The things that Rowling has put in place here: the Second Salemers, Jon Voight as an important member in the non-magic communities, Grindelwald before his rise to power… I’m hoping that this film is just the groundwork for something far more epic. Already, with the next film in this series being called “The Crimes of Grindelwald” I’m getting excited for the stories to come.
While I might not have cared too much for the overall story in this film, I really loved the world building. I will say that there were a bit too many scenes of Redmayne playing with his magic pets, but at the same time, I enjoyed seeing the variety of creatures that exist in this world. This was also the first time we saw a glimpse of the American Wizarding World, and I found that to be kind of cool. I liked the fact that Rowling hinted at the different ways wizarding governments handle certain laws (like magic and non-magic relations); that sort of attention to detail just adds another layer of depth to the world, which is one of the reasons I gravitated to the Harry Potter universe in the first place.
Verdict:
Though I can’t say that I loved this film, it did get me excited for the entries to follow this one. While this was only my second time watching the film (I saw it once in theaters), I can say that I actually enjoyed it more the second time. It’s not as fantastical as the Harry Potter movies, but it’s an adequate substitute.
Review Written By: