Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - Is it really that fantastic?
When it was first announced that Fantastic Beats and Where
to Find Them (FBWTFT) was going to become the next edition into the majorly
successful Harry Potter universe, it’s safe to say I was a little bit skeptical
.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Harry Potter series, growing up
with it made it near on impossible not to enjoy it. However hearing that a side
book that JK Rowling wrote (for charity, no less) was becoming its own his
film, it raised a lot of flags.
How would this little book which only describes the many
beasts within the wizard world make it onto the big screen? How would they
manage to make a film that would compare to the original eight? Would it end up
being as Fantastic as they want it to be?
It’s safe to say, the film was pretty fantastic and pretty
much blew my expectations out the window. Don’t get me wrong, the film does
have its faults, but it’s a pretty decent addition to the already great
wizarding world.
Just an FYI, I’ll keep the spoilers out of the review until
the end, but I’m sure you’ll notice the major warning I’ll place there.
Eddie Redmayne, who plays the titular character and author
of the book FBWTFT Newt Scamander, puts in a pretty good shift and the boyish
nature of the Oscar winner was a great pick for the Hufflepuff representative. It
felt almost uncomfortable sometimes watching the lovely Brit struggle around
with the fast paced 1920’s New York City, with Scamander still keeping a
careless and lovable approach while dealing with his problems (well, maybe not
careless when it came to his beasts) in the city.
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| Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander |
He was joined in a very star-studded cast with Colin Farrell
taking the role of Percival Graves, an auror in NYC who seems to have a bit of
power to his name, however he didn’t seem all too convincing playing an almost ‘bad
cop’ kind of character (oh I wonder why). He was joined by Ezra Miller playing
the super-awkward Credence Barebone, the son of a mother who has some kind of
hatred and belief of witches and wizards in NYC.
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| Newt Scamander and Graves, played by Colin Farrel |
Being a fan of the level of superhero content coming out,
all I could think of when Ezra came on playing the hunched over teenager was
him attempting to play a cheery, joking Flash in the future Justice League
movie. It does display the acting ability of Ezra himself, however it still
kept me distracted.
Also part of the cast was Samantha Morton as Tina, which in
my opinion was one of the weaker characters within the film. Playing a major
part in the journey with Scamander, Tina is supposedly meant to be some kind of
interest for the magizoolist, however I wasn’t entirely sure what she was there
for, besides being a failed auror and looking super awkward the majority of the
time, along with the one part she plays further in the film (more on that
later).
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| Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski and Alison Sudol as Queenie |
The final main character of the story is Jacob Kowalski, a ‘No-maj’
that accidentally gets dropped into the magic world and joins Newt on his
adventure. Played by Dan Fogler, he’s easily the reason why this film ends up
being far better than expected. The chemistry between Kowalski and Scamander is
brilliant to watch, as a carefree wizard and a wannabe baker end up stealing
the show with their almost dosey antics that surprisingly make a good team. The
character was played brilliantly and it pretty much elaborates on what somebody
would be like if they had somehow ended up in a world filled with more than
they ever imagined.
With the large and great cast (that also includes Ron
Pearlman and a rather surprising controversial figure right at the end…), the
visual effects were also top notch. The giant beasts look far better than those
that appeared in the previous Potter films, and it’s undoubted that Warner
Bros. have snatched themselves a hell of a profit in toys for the monsters in
the future.
Now for the story itself. This WILL contain spoilers, so if
you haven’t seen it, don’t read on.
So it starts of basically telling us where the series is
going to go. Starting off a very Harry Potter like time jump going through a
montage of papers detailing the destruction of Grindelwald as he rampages
through the UK. The fact that Grindelwald is only documented ever so slightly
in HP it was a bit weird seeing this, and it clearly states that the next
couple of films will not be based on fantastic beasts but instead explore the
rise and fall of Grindelwald, with it being safe to say the next couple of
films will be heavily based on Dumbledore.
The film then proceeds to split into three stories all
together. One following Newt Scamander, who is then rather easily apprehended
by Tina and almost brought in straight away, one following Graves looking for a
destructible force and one following a weird, witch-hunting group named the New
Salem Philanthropic Society. It was a bit annoying how the entity that was wreaking
havoc on New York was barely explained or acknowledged until later on in the
film, just when it was most acceptable for
the blame to be pinned on Newt for it. Though, the way that it’s managed to be
tied in was believable enough, with Credence Barebone being the creature called
Obscurity that was destroying the city.
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| Graves and Credence Barebone, played by Ezra Miller |
Though on the topic of Credence, it was ridiculous how Tina
managed to reveal the world of wizardry purely because she saw him being
beaten. A kid being beaten in the 1920s? Scandalous. It’s partly her fault that
all of this happened and why there was some anti-witch group on the hunt and hell-bent
on causing havoc in New York. Sure it can be assumed that in the end it’d still
come to the same conclusion, with Grindelwald attempting to win over the
obscurity, but really? Revealing yourself and losing your job for that?
Grindelwald was a good touch to the series though, with
there being many little subtle hints to Graves being the evil wizard. From the
same slicked back hair first seen at the beginning of the film, to the Deathly
Hallows symbol that was hanging in his pocket the entire time before it was
given to Credence. How he didn’t figure out that Credence was the obscurity
earlier is a bizarre one, with the whole ‘is it isn’t it his sister’ game that
went on that was clearly and obvious ruse.
Now onto the big reveal at the end. With Credence being
killed off for being the obscurity (why was Scamander so calm about it in the
end though? He just saw a kid he was trying to save killed in front of him!) along
with the mass destruction of New York (sure, everyone’s memory was wiped, but
what about the amount of people who were clearly killed in the wreckage?) it
was then reveal that Graves was in fact the notorious Grindelwald. How
Scamander was so cool and confident about Graves being Grindelwald is another question,
but the big question is: why Johnny Depp?
The controversial actor is clearly being set up for a run as
the big bad in future additions to the series, however how they came to casting
him is another question. For such a small amount of screen time it’s sure that
it must have come after his midlife crisis and divorce, and is a very
questionable casting. Also, if you’ll remember, Grindelwald in the Deathly
Hallows film was a youngish, baby-faced criminal who stole the Elder Wand, not
somebody who clearly thought Johnny Depp looked good in that moustache from
Mordecai with eyes that look like they’ve been ripped straight from David Bowie’s
skull.
Overall though, despite the odd bizarre things that felt a
little forced at time, along with the plenty of fun times watching Scamander
hunt his beastly, adorable creatures while they terrorised NYC, the film was an
overall enjoyment and is a pretty solid edition to the wizard universe, and
somehow managed to stay within said universe without feeling like a total sell
out for the HP series. I’d highly recommend seeing it for the entertainment
value, and with the few hints to future films (Lena Lestrange should be a good
one, plus a young Dumbledore) it’s bound to be a good series. Though it is
clear that Eddie Redmayne won’t be a big name in the future ones, with Newt
Scamanders story being way too small to be the main focus of future films,
which is a bit sad to be honest. However, it should be highly interesting to
see how they all play out.
In the end, I’d give the film a solid 7.5 out of 10.
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