![]() Heyman always kept his Harry Potter movies visually grounded in reality, which is very much appreciated here. There’s a subtle awkwardness to him that makes you like this guy and Tina. That Redmayne makes this character likeable – I’d say even more likable than Harry Potter himself was in previous movies - is a testament to his acting abilities. To be truthful, he’s a misunderstood screw up who can’t stop getting in his own way. You’re lured through the slow points by the likable characters and dazzle of exploring a new place.Ĭolin Farrell never rises to the occasion, coming off as pretty flat the entire movie. This is definitely a problem this movie share’s with Rowling’s books. Parts of the movie feel a bit slow, almost as if you’re being forced to watch an after school special. This being her first movie script, Rowling definitely stumbles with pacing. My favorite reference to the real America is the statute that requires witches and wizards in to register their wands. Miscarriages of justice aren’t gone because you can wave a wand. The contrast between what we’ve seen elsewhere and in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is striking. She’s trading off the country’s very real flaws for a story. It’s your first hint at J.K.’s narrative for this series of movies. When asked how much he knows about America, Scamander remarks that he only knows the MACUSA has some “backwards” rules about muggles and magical citizens being friends. Fanatical heads will spin as the movie reveals new details on the intricacies of magic. I hungered for more details on the wizarding world and Rowling doesn’t disappoint. ![]() I knew that this was a movie set 70 years before anything we’d seen before. I went into Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them with a very, very open mind. He and Tina are trying to track Scamander and his creatures. Alison Sudol plays her mind-reading, attractive sister Queenie.Ĭolin Farrell is Percival Graves, a high-ranking Auror for the MACUSA. Soon Scamander has attracted the attention of Tina Goldstein, (Katherine Waterston), an Auror with the magical government in America. The first friend that Scamander makes is Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler). Fear propaganda to achieve nefarious ends, what could be more American than that? Strange things are starting to happen all over the city and Mary Lou Barebone has started a society dedicated to destroying wizard-kind. The Magical Congress of the United States keeps a tight rein on anything that might draw suspicion to magic’s continued existence. The United States of America isn’t the safest place for magical creatures or magical beings in general. The earlier twentieth century is very, very different from the Wizarding World that we know of because of the other films. What Scamander finds is a New York City on the brink of war. He nurtures them and takes care of them, even if his fellow wizards only see them as dangerous animals to be corralled and kept under lock and key. Fresh from travels abroad, he’s come to New York with a suitcase full of magical creatures. Scamander is a wizard, but he couldn’t be any more different from other wizards we’ve encountered in the series before. Rowling wrote this movie herself, there were no middle men cutting out pieces and stitching things together. In the greater Harry Potter universe, it’s a textbook considered essential teaching at Hogwarts. You probably know this by now, Fantastic Beasts started out as a small book that J.K. It’s set in the same universe as the books that the other movies are based on, but it’s a different time period. Let’s not pretend here, we all know that we were hungry for this movie – or anything Harry Potter related.ĭirected by David Heyman and starring Eddie Redmayne, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them feels both familiar and foreign. If you’re a fan like me, you’ve missed this world. Fantastic Beasts marks the first time we’ve been able to return to the Wizarding World on-screen. You have to give it up for Warner Brothers. I’d be lying if I said that this movie wasn’t my must-see motion picture of the year. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, arrived at movies theaters this week. Actually, I would have asked, “are you nuts?” Then I’d have remembered the disaster that was Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and remembered anything is possible when you’re dealing with Warner Brothers Pictures. If you’d have asked me whether that was a good idea five years ago, I would have said it was crazy. A movie set in the same magical world as Harry Potter, but without Harry Potter himself.
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