Review: FANTASTIC BEASTS

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM
(FANTASY/ADVENTURE) 
★★★
Directed by David Yates
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sodol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Carmen Ejogo, Colin Farrell, Ron Perlman, Faith Wood-Blagrove, Josh Cowdery, Ronan Raftery
Rated PG-13 for some fantasy action violence.
133 minutes
Verdict: The return to J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World is populated by wonderfully engaging new characters portrayed by a stellar cast while the story explores new and intriguing dimensions within the familiar universe, but as part of a larger story, it is not without its frustrating aspects.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM IF YOU LIKED:
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS - PART 2  (2011)
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS - PART 1  (2010)
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE  (2009)
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX  (2007)
HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN  (2004)

The "Wizarding World" created by J.K. Rowling in the Harry Potter book series is one of the great fictional worlds, ranking alongside the galaxy created by George Lucas for Star Wars, J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth and C.S. Lewis's Narnia, whether due to literary merit or contemporary popular taste, but probably both.  However, the series' greatest strength was always in its characters, building from familiar archetypes with richly satisfying layers; Harry Potter, the young hero with a reckless hero complex, Hermoine Granger, the hardworking and incredibly intelligent but emotionally insecure young woman, Ron Weasley, Harry's fiercely loyal but often negligent best friend, Albus Dumbledore, the seemingly perfect, humble and brilliant mentor revealed to have once had a very human past, Lord Voldemort, the man who became a monster by attempting to console his insecurities with quests for power and unadulterated selfishness, and of course, Severus Snape, the cruel teacher whose outer coldness concealed an uncommonly brave, devoted and tortured soul.  By the way, how great is Ms. Rowling at coming up with character names?  But with the story of "The Boy Who Lived" completed after eight films, FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM now returns to the Wizarding World with an original screenplay by J.K. Rowling herself, and while the world is as welcoming as ever, breaking open new dimensions of wizard history and culture, it is once again in the characters that Rowling's writing thrives.

Set in 1926, 65 years before the events of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, FANTASTIC BEASTS finds Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), a young and socially inept (unspecified, but the implication is that he's somewhere on the autistic spectrum) wizard specializing in "magizoology," that is, the study of magical creatures, arriving in bustling New York City.  He has a suitcase full of such illegal magical creatures and quickly runs afoul of Porpetina "Tina" Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), a disgraced former Auror (basically a police officer of the wizard world) for the Magical Congress of the United States (MACUSA).  Before she can arrest him, however, the suitcase becomes accidentally switched with another belonging to a non-magical person named Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), who unwittingly unleashes several generally benign but nonetheless destructive creatures into the city.  In order to recapture his beasts, Newt enlists Jacob's help, along with Tina and her sugary-sweet mind-reading sister Queenie (Alison Sudol), while more sinister events are heating up elsewhere in the city involving a mysterious force of destruction being investigated by MACUSA's Director of Magical Security, Percival Graves (Colin Farrell), that threatens to reveal the secret of wizard-kind to the entire world just anti-magic hysteria is on the rise, spearheaded by the extremist leader of the Second Salemers, Mary Lou Barebone (Samantha Morton).

Despite being Rowling's first screenplay, she clearly has no problem translating what she does so well in a novel to the cinematic medium, deftly crafting both a suitably independent story while setting the stage for things to come in the already-planned sequels (intended to span 19 years, that is, 1926 to 1945, suggesting the saga parallels the rise of 20th-century European fascism and WWII).  Admittedly, it is the case that this is one of those movies that is setting up movies that I'd be even more interested in seeing than this, but it's pretty good in its own right.  The leading quartet of Newt, Tina, Queenie and Jacob are all excellent, introduced as young adults in New York City, each trying to make their own mark (hey, it's like Friends with wands!).  Their interplay is often funny, with Jacob providing the opportunity to open the world to those uninitiated to the Wizarding World, and Queenie upstaging the trope of the pretty blonde bimbo as an easygoing but clever and capable member of the group.  Redmayne's Newt Scamander is a stark deviation from the boldness of Harry as a soft spoken and sensitive hero with a dry wit, complimented by Waterston's earthy, calm and collected but stern Tina.  The character interactions are all splendid as they track down and haphazardly catch the loose creatures, while the bigger and darker themes of the story involving the Second Salemers and the rise of a certain Dark wizard intrigue, but are also a bit bumpier.  Not much can be said without delving into spoilers, but some developments of magic in the Wizarding World are a little confusing and maybe bolder than is initially digestible. 
David Yates returns as director, having previously directed the last four films in the Harry Potter series as well as the underrated THE LEGEND OF TARZAN from last summer, and while he doesn't reach the stylistic heights of THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE or even THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1, he provides a steady hand that exceeds his work on THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX.  The true strength of the film through and through however is Rowling, more specifically, her new characters that I'm eager to follow into future adventures.

                                                                                                                                                         Images via Warner Brothers