Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Review – a pleasant surprise for a cynic

As my very first post in a blog named after the fact that I am a self-proclaimed Hufflepuff, it seems appropriate for me to voice my thoughts on the latest release from the ever-expanding Harry Potter universe.

Now, I should point out that although I do believe that Hufflepuff is the best way to describe my personality and I have created a blog around that very concept, I am not the biggest Harry Potter fan. Don’t get me wrong! I very much enjoyed reading (and rereading occasionally) the book series. I have seen and enjoyed all the films. And one day I would like to go to the Warner Brother’s Studios in London to experience the magical world that J.K Rowling has created. However, where other fans welcome the various extensions of the original storyline, I am dubious about how the franchise has been protracted.

They already managed to extend the film series by splitting the final book in two – a concept which has unfortunately leaked into other franchises – and then they brought out The Cursed Child? It’s certainly an interesting move to write a spin-off play but, in reality, it’s a disappointing read with little plot content and the fact that you have to go and see TWO shows, paying twice the expense, to get the whole story is, frankly, ludicrous.

So, when I heard that they had managed to somehow fashion a storyline around the supplementary bestiary that J.K Rowling wrote a while back, I was a little sceptical. (It isn’t even a real story people!) I became even more so when I heard that it was going to be a five-film series.

But anyway, I realise I’ve rambled on quite a bit. On to my review! The film centres around a British wizard who has travelled to New York in 1926 with a suitcase full of wondrous creatures. This wizard is Newt Scamander (played by Eddie Redmayne) and he’s basically the wizarding version of David Attenborough – he thinks humans are the bane of the earth and wants to educate people on all these marvellous animals in the hopes of being able to protect them (he’s definitely a Hufflepuff). Unfortunately for Scamander, New York currently has a ban on magical creatures and a few of his manage to escape. We follow his attempts to recapture these funny-looking animals whilst a secondary plot unfolds that threatens the life of everyone in New York as well as the exposure of wizarding kind.

Redmayne manages to make this unlikely hero utterly loveable but I do wonder whether his weird, neck-tilt and hunch combination is going to be the new Emma Watson eyebrows. It may get to me after a while. His no-maj (muggle) sidekick, played by Dan Fogler, is a brilliant comedy counter-part to Scamander’s relative seriousness and I love his pairing with ditsy witch, Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol).

Speaking of ditsy witches, I was pleased to see that this film allowed for some female strength, something I’ve found lacking in the original Harry Potter series. Not only is the president of the American magical association a woman, but Scamander teams up with a very capable witch (Katherine Waterston) and the ditsy witch I was talking about earlier can actually step up to the mark when needed – unlike Fleur Delacour in the Triwizard Tournament.

The best actor award, however, goes to Ezra Miller who plays an abused young man, son of a fanatical woman intent on ridding the world of witches (and wizards too, I assume, if she realised they were real as well). Miller does extremely well to portray the beaten, vulnerable character of Credence whose inner turmoil turns out to be critical later in the film.

The light-hearted, slightly slapstick elements of Scamander’s hunt for his creatures is a welcome relief to the really rather sinister main narrative. That being said, while the build-up was appropriately intriguing and well dispersed within the funnier plotline, the ultimate climax of the film could have been more imaginative. An elusive monster reaping unrealistic destruction in a large city is becoming an all too regular occurrence in today’s chartbusters for me.

I am interested to see how the remainder of this series will play out. There were a few hints distributed throughout the film; an unfinished romance, the growing unrest from Grindlewald, America’s conservative laws regarding wizard and muggle relations. We shall have to see! I, for one, was much less disappointed by this offshoot story than I was with The Cursed Child and will continue to follow this new series.

3/5 stars