Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) Review

"I was inside a suitcase."
-Jacob Kowalski



A prequel to the Harry Potter series, Fantastic Beasts follows magizoologist, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), as he travels to New York City with the intention of releasing a Thunderbird he rescued, but a bunch of magical creatures accidentally escape his care and start running wild across the city.  At the same time, a dark force is on the loose in New York and the American Wizarding Government, MACUSA, is investigating and about to cross paths with Newt...


What Works:

By far the best part of this film is Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski.  Jacob is completely non-magical and is accidentally thrust into this insane adventure, and is an absolute treat to watch.  His reactions to the chaos are just the best and absolutely hilarious.  Every scene with him is fun and I can only hope he gets as much screen-time in the sequel.

The rest of the cast all does a solid job as well.  Newt, Tina (Katherine Waterson), and Queenie Alison Sudol) are all fun and likable and have interesting quirks and character traits.  Colin Farrell does a real solid job as the villain of the film.  I only wish he would be appearing in the sequels.

There are a lot of really fun sequences involving the magical creatures.  I loved watching Newt show Jacob around his magical suitcase where he keeps the creatures protected.  It has some amazing visuals and gives us some deeper insight into the types of creatures that inhabit this world as well as a closer look at Newt's character.


What Sucks:

I don't really care for the first act of this film.  The movie throws a lot of characters and story points at us very rapidly and it's hard to keep up.  This may be a prequel, but we're being introduced to all new characters and basically a whole new world.  Slow down and let the audience catch their breath.

The first half of the movie feels a little aimless.  There really isn't much interesting in terms of plot.  The only thing we know is Newt is looking for his creatures, but it's not all that engaging.  Once Tina brings Newt and Jacob in front of the MACUSA, the film starts to get interesting, but it is definitely lacking a purpose for the first half.

Finally, I don't think the storyline involving Credence (Ezra Miller) is very well handled.  A lot of the film isn't very clear about what is happening with him or why.  It doesn't help that he is very separate from the main plot and we don't see Newt and his friends interact with him until the end of the film.  It's a little hard to care when Credence's story is so removed from the rest of the film until the last minute.


Verdict:

While Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them isn't the best movie in this magical series, it isn't the worst either.  The cast is solid, especially Dan Fogler, and it's a really fun, especially in the second half.  I don't love the first act or the Credence storyline, but this movie has certainly got it going on.

 7/10: Good   

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