Fantastic Beasts, I hope You Find Them.
Newt Scamander is a writer that finds himself in New York. Newt happens to be a wizard who specializes in the study of mythical creatures and is on his way to Arizona to help one. Mayhem arises when his magical suitcase lets loose a few creatures. What’s he going to do about it? Let’s find out in my review of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them.
This story takes place in the same universe as Harry Potter, but a few decades before. It’s the roaring 20’s and the wizarding community in New York is doing their best to keep hidden from No-Majs, or people without powers. When Newt’s case lets loose a few creatures, it’s his duty to stop them from running a muck.
This new entry into the Harry Potter Universe is helmed by the same director who did the last few Harry Potter movies, David Yates. With that, the tone is pretty dark for a family movie. There are a few themes that feel inappropriate for the intended audience.
The special effects improve upon the Harry Potter movies that I mentioned before. If you thought Dobby looked good, wait till you see Niffler and his friends. They definitely look realistic for magical creatures.
One of the downsides about this movie is that they try to introduce too many characters and stories for one film. I would have been okay with just Newt’s self-causing problem, but there’s the people against wizards, secret magical society, a mysterious and murderous presence, Grindelwald… as you can see. If there are four more movies in the works, it would have been nicer to distribute the plots throughout.
If you’re a Potter fan, you should probably watch this. They drop in a few easter eggs from the universe, but don’t elaborate on them. The movie was very magical, but they tried to cram too much into this one.