Fantastic Beasts
and where to find them, is directed by David Yates, who's made every single
Harry Potter film in the franchise, ever since Order of the Phoenix, and the
stars Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, a guy who is looking through old New
York City, 70 years before Harry Potter ever read his book in school, for
various creatures that have escaped his suitcase. He goes around collecting
feared creatures, who a lot of people want exterminated immediately, because he
feels that if he can take care of them and nurture them, he can create a
relationship with these creatures. Thus, showing other people in the magic
community at this time, some of these creatures really don't mean them any harm.
So not only is Newt trying to go around New York City, and find all the
creatures that have escaped his case, he's also trying his best to make sure
that no one finds out what's really going on.
Now I'm a big
Harry Potter fan, I enjoy all of the movies, some are better than others, so I
was really excited for this movie. It's also written by JK Rowling, so this is
the first time that someone who is a hardcore Harry Potter fan, can actually go
to the film to experience things for the very first time, without actually knowing
what's going to happen. Also, Harry Potter fans can go to this movie and not be
wondering what they got right, and what they got wrong, when they're comparing
it to the book, because this is her original screenplay, and once again, she
has shown herself to be one of the most imaginative writers working today.
I really
enjoyed Fantastic Beasts. I so admire her imaginative qualities as a writer,
this world has so many cool things in it that make the child inside me get
really excited. I love all the creature designs, everything looks so cool, just
like all the other Harry Potter films. I want to own or at least be friends at
least half of the creatures in this film, but pushing my fandom of the Harry
Potter universe aside, what I really liked about this movie was the way it's
constructed. David Yates once again proves that he's a director who understands
this world, which is why I'm glad he signed onto the sequel to this film, and what
he brings to this universe is a great sense of how to direct really epic action
sequences and special effects. But he's also really good at slowly building and
setting up characters, and making us appreciate this world without overly
relying on our knowledge of the Harry Potter universe, or our love Harry Potter
universe, and that's probably my number one favourite thing about this movie.
Unlike almost
every prequel ever made, Fantastic Beasts and where to find them does not rely
on our fandom of other films, to make us appreciate this one. Pretty much every
remake, reboot, spin-off, sequel, prequel whatever, they all have ties to the
other things that we like, and some of them do it way too much. But the entire
creative team behind this movie have made a movie that stands on its own. You don't
even have to have seen the Harry Potter films to understand and appreciate this
movie, it can be a world on its own without having to even experience those
other films, and that's something to be praised.
They didn't
rely on tons of fan-service, and references and little visual cues to make us
go ‘oh look that's that's great great grandfather of this character’, like we
don't need that in this movie, because they set up a good movie on its own. Eddie
Redmayne is fantastic as Newt, he's vulnerable, he's very likeable and he's an
extremely accessible character, but also one that is good at hiding past pain
without making it seem clichéd. And Dan Fogler as Kowalski, this normal no-mag,
or muggle, who really wants to set up a bakery, who gets caught up in all this,
he's the audience character, you know he's the guy who's constantly like ‘hey what's
going on?’ And they explain things to him, but they're really explaining it to
us, but he's that character. He was so good, he really added a lot to this
movie a lot of really good humour while also being the audience character, he
was the comic relief as well, and he never got annoying he never felt like a
sidekick, and that's something I was really glad. Because as soon as he was
like on the mission with Newt, I was like ‘Oh shit this could oh… ok’ and by
the end of the movie that character was actually one of the most emotional
elements of the film, that actually did bring a tear to my eye, and I was
sitting there like ‘Am I kind of tearing up? Shit’.
I also really
like Katherine Waterson as Tina, she's investigating the things that are going on
in New York City, a lot of things are scaring people, weird sites, strange things
are happening, and I'm not going to get too much into that, I think you should
experience that aspect of the film without me even saying anything. What I will
say is that it's awesome that's a lot of fun, it's the type of film that allows
you to get excited about future instalments, without feeling like a setup movie.
My two least favourite Harry Potter films, even though I like them were, the
first two, because largely they did feel kind of like set up movies, those are
my biggest flaws of the first two Harry Potter films. Fantastic Beasts does set
up a new world that we can appreciate that we've already been to, but this is a
previous time, but it doesn't feel like it's just a setup movie it feels like
it stands on its own as an extremely entertaining film, and I loved it.
As for issues,
I really only have a couple. In the earlier parts of the movie, there are two
editing / CGI mistakes I noticed. The very first shot that we see, a wide shot
the Statue of Liberty, if you look to the right of the frame, I noticed that
the American flag jumped unnaturally, and I think that was actually a CGI
mistake that's a nitpick. But since this is the first time I saw this movie,
and I noticed that right off the bat, I think other people probably will too. There's
also a really strange editing choice where two characters in the beginning are
walking past each other, and the shots jump extremely fast to Katherine
Waterson, and then back to Eddie Redmayne, and I was like ‘Wow, that's messy editing.
There are some narratively rocky points in the first act were there are some
scenes that feel kind of like they're just entertaining scenes that will be
great as a scene that you watch again, but don't necessarily feel like they fit
in this story. And just like with any film like this that requires a lot of
explaining, there are some heavy exposition scenes, mostly given to Dan Fogler’s
character, so that we as an audience can understand things and sometimes it
does feel like school, and that's really it.
I had a blast
with Fantastic Beasts. I think people are really going to enjoy this movie,
especially if you're Harry Potter fans, but even if you're not, I think it's a
fun and accessible movie that's going to get people excited.
Grade - A-
This is the
ninth film in the Harry Potter universe, and they're still good…that's amazing.
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