MOVIE REVIEW: “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” Stumbles Between Two Stories

Five years have passed since the last we’ve been to the Wizarding World (and no I’m not talking about my vacation in Orlando, Florida) and here we are yet again returning with a more ambitious take on stories that unfolded in its past. In J.K. Rowling’s first screenplay she takes off the kid gloves as she takes her new set of heroes to the muggle No-Maj world, a time of bigotry and intolerance between them and the Wizards. With a much bigger plan when a dark wizard is lurking about to bend the rules and terrorizing men and wizards that gets in his way. I know what you’re gonna say “wait what? I thought this was about Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them? Why is it suddenly sounding like an X-Men movie with magic?” well I had the same question as you did.

Plot Summary:

The year is 1926, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), a magi-zoologist travels to New York City with a bottomless suitcase full of magical creatures. But after a careless encounter with a No-Maj (an American term for Muggles), Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) had him switching up suitcases and let loose his creatures as they go running amuck in the city. It’s now up to Newt and his new found friends, a disgraced investigator Tina (Katherine Waterson) and her mindreading sister Queenie (Fine Fenzy) to catch them all safely and fix the mayhem they have caused.

Ambition is one thing but keeping it all together to make a cohesive whole is another. Rowling may have triumphed once more as she proved that her imaginative writing could bring so much to the expanding the Wizarding World in America during the 1920s. But there was just a lot of material to juggle making the first hour a chore to go through. It’s a confused movie; one moment you have this self-contained uplifting movie about a wizard trying to catch some magical creatures and prove that they should be understood but then you have this other epic-scale film with darker and weightier stakes that packed a social commentary about tolerance among people who are much different than us. It takes a long time for the film to find its footing as they bring these two elements together, which makes me have a hard time distinguishing which is the sub-plot or which is its main story. Overtime the film loses its essence from its own title as they fail to contrast cohesively from one plot point to the next.

However the film still has its strengths within these two elements. When you stepped down into Newt’s magical zoo-tcase for the first time as and you see all of these creatures that we have never seen before gave out the same sense of wonder I once had when I watched The Sorcerer’s Stone 15 years ago. Despite the MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America ) parts were rather dodgy; veteran Potter Director, David Yates do provide the film’s most intense scenes that I wished we saw more of after the last 5 Harry Potter films, not to mention the exploration of the magical New York City in the 20s was quite the treat in this caper adventure. Although they weren’t well put together, they could at least be appreciated on its own as a collection of scenes.

Another strength would be in the characters as well and it helps that they have a talented cast. Eddie Redmayne breathes life in the soft-spoken and awkward Newt Scamander, Katherine Waterson’s Tina Goldstein brings a vulnerable side to the character effectively enough, while Dan Fogler gives a lovable performance to his Jacob Kowalski; it’s also nice how he gravitates so well with these magical characters and the environment he was in especially with Fine Frenzy’s Queenie. But the one who really stood out in this new cast of characters is Colin Farrell’s intimidating and intense Percival Graves. He wasn’t exactly shown a lot in the movie, but the moment he walked into the scene he brings his 100%.

Conclusion:

Despite it being a crowded film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is an entertaining entry to the growing volume of the franchise. Outside all of its busyness it was nice to explore what the Wizarding World is like in the other side with creatures lurking about in familiar landmarks to a confrontation in a magical speakeasy and the busy offices of the MACUSA. Rowling’s strength is definitely putting its inhabitants in a lively world but stuffing too many different things in her suitcase is not as well laid out as Newt’s. We still have 4 more films to go through and the little nuggets they left around the movie is enough to keep new and old Potterheads be interested in what to unfold in future installments.