Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2016

[4.6/10] When the word came out that J.K. Rowling was not only going to write a film based on her very brief, storyless, enjoyable trifle of a book, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but that there would be an entire trilogy, I wasn’t especially concerned. While there is barely enough in the original book for a series of shorts, let alone a trio of films, I chalked it up to the usual demands of commerce. Fantastic Beasts was simply a recognizable enough brand name that provided Rowling cover to once again play around in the Wizard World and tell a new story.

And that’s pretty much what we get in the film adaptation of Fantastic Beasts. While there are plenty of elements lifted from the book, the bulk of the film is made from whole cloth. It’s a story of Newt Scarmander, a lover and conservationist of the titular fantastic beasts, coming to New York City to help one of his creatures and getting embroiled in a magical conflict with the American wizarding government as the specter of Gellet Grindlewald, the Voldemort of his day, looms large.

But while that should be freeing -- a chance for Rowling to unleash her imagination and talents as a storyteller in a familiar world but a different setting, without the chosen one narrative to guide or be subverted -- the result is a film that feels formless, aimless, and at times straight up incoherent. To call the screenplay, penned by Rowling herself, meandering is understating it. This is a film where events simply roll into one another, long detours are par for the course, and the point of any given action or larger story is, at best, opaque.

Some of that might be tolerable if the characters who populate the film were more interesting. Eddie Redmayne is fine as Scarmander, but beyond the fact that he wants to protect his animals and a barely-sketched notion that he has trouble making friends, his character makes little impression and certainly isn’t compelling enough to drive this story. Tina, the demoted American auror who helps him is almost a complete cipher, given some perfunctory “she just cares too much” shading, but otherwise written and played as a blank slate.

Colin Farrell has more luck as the closest thing in the film to a true antagonist, giving the film’s best performance, but even he is hampered by the writing. The character carries such an air of mystery that the film walks on eggshells in delving into his motivations and personality, lest too much of that mysterious vibe be exposed. The questions of what his angle is lead to doublespeak and vagary that waste one of the few layered performances in the picture.

And the only bit of charm comes from the chemistry between Kowalski (Dan Fogler), a No-Maj (the American term for muggles) who dreams of opening a bakery and Queenie (Alison Sudol), Tina’s friendly sister with a gift for mind-reading. They offer the rare bit of levity in a film that is often needlessly grim without nearly enough of the whimsy of Harry Potter to balance it out. Otherwise, the film is populated with dead-faced performances from nearly the entire rest of the cast, where no one really leaves an impression.

That is as much a product of the script as anything though. It is unclear, at best, what anyone’s motivation in this film is. Beyond vague, generalized notions, you barely get to know any of these people long enough to care about their quests before they’re thrown into some standard bit of pre-viz spectacle. The story threads are jumbled and unclear, making the moments when they intersect, and the characters’ parts in moving them along, as much of a dull muddle as the rest of the film.

The saving grace for a movie like this -- one where the story, characters, and performances suffer or stagnate -- is the visuals. But Fantastic Beasts falters there too. The omnipresent CGI in the film is incredibly underwhelming, with moments where the human characters interact with the magical creatures seeming particularly unbelievable. While the designs of the creatures are interesting enough, and some like the niffler are even cute, the style of the film can’t find the right balance between cartoony and realistic.

That gives everything in the film an antiseptic quality. The animals feel pasted into the film over the flesh and blood actors rather than integrated into the scenes. The humanoid characters plunge deep into the uncanny valley from the word go. And overall it’s just an unpleasant film to look at, with obviously fake backgrounds and weightless CGI robbing the film of the sort of awe that Harry’s first steps into Hogwarts generated. Only the particle effects of the mysterious Obscurus offer anything impressive from a visual standpoint.

Thematically, the film offers a few reheated lessons about repression and prejudice. A young wizard in the care of a witch-hater is eaten up inside from being called a freak and treated accordingly. Scarmander turns his nose up at the way American wizards and witches turn their nose up at having any associations or contact with non-magical folk. The X-Men-like metaphors of some gifted individuals wanting to make peace with muggles, some wanting to keep a safe distance, and others wanting to position themselves as the superior peoples are fine, but not particularly novel or well-done. There are decent ideas at play in Fantastic Beasts, but none is really fleshed out or explored enough amid this hodge-podge of a film to merit real thought or praise.

The best thing to say in favor of the movie is that it continues with the project of worldbuilding that enraptured so many in the Harry Potter series. While in other works set in this universe, it often felt like the whole world revolved around Hogwarts, Fantastic Beasts shows a distinctly American slice of wizardom, with different slang, different attitudes about interacting with “no-majs,” and different government officials and policeman to contend with. Rowling even includes some friendly rivalry between the two countries’ wizarding schools. While the film doesn’t do much with it, it’s nice to see Rowling & Co. expanding the world a little bit.

But that’s cold comfort in a two-hour slog of a film. Director David Yates, who helmed the last set of Harry Potter films, knows this world almost as well as Rowling. But the product the two present is at times indulgent, wheel-spinning, garbled, ugly, and worst of all boring. There is so much potential in this blank slate -- an opportunity to explore the Wizarding World and its history beyond the seven year stretch of Harry’s adolescence. Instead, Fantastic Beasts gives a series of half-finished ideas and characters, stitched together around uninspired, CGI-heavy sequences, with little to show for it beyond a minor expansion of the mythos and a couple of decent reveals. By the end of the film, you’ll be wishing the aurors had used the memory charm on the audience, and fooled you into thinking you’d watched a different, better movie.

53 | The Wizarding world was expanded to America. It was a nice little fact that apparently, wizards are all around the world not only in Great Britain. Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them focus to explore any kind of magical beasts in Wizarding World. That exploration was from the perspective of Newt. But, unfortunately, instead of we got to understand Newt well, this film created another plot which was Grindelwald, a wizard criminal. It made Newt's character less interesting than he should be. Eddie Redmayne gave an amazing performance but he was wasted because of random creatures with a hollow story. Another bad part of this film was the Magical Congress of the United States of America, they did a very bad job at governing. So that made them less believable as an important organization in a Wizarding World. Films and series, in general, need to stop glorifying the United States of America and put other countries into more serious story elements. Because just like what we watched in this film, even though it was an international problem for the Wizarding World, only United States took the real action.

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Rating: 52.88

Plot

P1: 1.1
P2: 0.7
P3: 0.8
P4: 0.7

Director: David Yates

Favorite Characters

1.4: Eddie Redmayne as Newt
1.3: Alison Sudol as Queenie
1.3: Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski
1.1: Colin Farrell as Graves
1.1: Katherine Waterston as Tina
1.0: Ezra Miller as Credence Barebone

Written by Kornelius Harda Wicaksana

Never been a Harry Potter fan, I watched them and forgot them immediately. I got the basics, but that's it. So I was happily surprised that this one was not too heavy on the HP stuff.

There are some interesting ideas, but obviously the fantastic beasts part has not really been thought as a main plot. It's just some funny stuff on the side. Too bad, it could have been a real interesting source of storylines. It gets a lot less interesting once it falls back on the main storyline which is kinda basic.

The basis of the main character is pretty weird though. He's clearly a world class expert on beasts, and totally unknown. Some of these beasts are huge and powerful, you would have thought that someone would have at least cared a little to study and learn something on them. At least the bare minimum, how to use them or how to fight them maybe. But it looks like nobody ever in the history of wizardry took any interest in that. Also his suitcase. Is there anything half as powerful in the whole HP saga ? He has entire worlds in it ! That's a world class item, how does a nobody like him gets that ? Even worse if you take into account the military power of the beasts contained inside. Nobody controls that ?

Anyway, it's well done, everything looks good, actors are good enough, fx are ok and most beasts and magic look great.

Newt Scamander arrives in New York with his suitcase containing very fantastic beasts. Once something involving his suitcases goes very wrong, the American wizard world is being faced with more then one challenge.

I am very new to this world, seeing that I only saw all the Harry Potter films last week. But once I watched those I immediately understood the love for these movies, the books and the whole wizard world. I was super exited to go see this movie to continue my "stay" in the world. Although I enjoyed the Harry Potter movies a bit more, I really liked this one. Everything looked so beautiful and the acting in the movie was so great. I adore Eddie Redmayne and I think they made the perfect choice. Newt is such a fun and smart character. I felt like he kept doing things that were very unexpected for him as a character, and I can't wait to see the change I predict he is going to go throughout in the following movies. To be honest, Tina wasn't one of my favorite characters and she sometimes even annoyed me a bit, which is to sad because I think she could be pretty cool. Jacob and Queenie for sure are two of my favorite characters and really, I can't wait to find out what is going to happen to them and what is going to happen with Jacob in general. Someone who also gave quite a interesting performance is Ezra Miller. He was such a character, wasn't he. He made me feel a lot emotions which doesn't really happen often. I think if an actor can do something like that, it's kind of magical.

I really enjoyed the storyline and the darker turn it made. I am very eager to find out what is going to happen in the next few movies. I really like to see more of Grindelwald, seeing we don't know a lot about him.

One of my favorite things in the movie is for sure Newt his suitcase. They made a whole new world inside of it and the creatures as well, they all looked so beautiful and were so creatively thought out, not only the way they looked but also the special things they can do, I loved it. I would highly recommend this movie to everyone. It's also quite nice that you don't really have to have seen Harry Potter, this way everyone can go see it. Now, I will go find as many J.K. Rowling books as I can and read them all while waiting patiently for the next movie.

I feel like this film repeats the same mistake that The Hobbit trilogy did. It feels like it tries to be some sort of Harry Potter prequel instead of its own film which happens to share the same universe with Harry Potter series.

While it is titled as Fantastic Beasts, the beasts don't feel like the main focus of the story. The main focus of the story is Newt, a collector of beasts, who happen to stumble upon the dark forces rising in the times of dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald and the discovery of Obscurus/Obscurio. This feels especially so as in the end it is revealed that it was Grindelwald that was behind all this ploy. The beasts and Newt just happen to be there.

There are plenty of references, but as others have said, you must be a fan of Harry Potter universe to get and appreciate those references. Unfortunatenly, it's hard to care with these references if you're not a fan as the characters seem a bit too empty. I mean, I can see the potential of characters, but the development between one and other is a bit rushed for the sake of moving the plot. The performance was good though. Score was okay - I think they could've made something better without doing the same Harry Potter motif.

There was a lot of hype involving this movie, but ultimately it fell rather short. For a 2 hour+ movie, it's a bit surprising how the characters felt so flat all throughout the movie, with maybe the exception of the muggle. I also thought the the fantastical aspect of the original franchise was stretched a bit too thin... like either the magic of these characters is extremely more powerful and casually used than in Potter's time, or it's just not the same kind magic at all? I don't know, the constant apparating and disapparating during the chase scenes (something that doesn't really happen in HP) and Newt's version of the extension charm just felt a bit off - I mean, a whole apartment inside a camping tent is one thing, but a whole set of different environments with several creatures inside a suitcase seems a bit much.

Not that everything about it was bad - in fact, all the actors did a pretty good job despite their mostly insipid roles and the CGI was pretty decent. But not only does Fantastic Beasts have very big shoes to fill, it also has a certain place in the wizarding world to fit in to, and it just doesn't feel like it does.

Personally I found this movie to be 2+ hours of excellent entertainment. This is one of these movies where I simply cannot understand how people can give one and two star ratings stating that it is garbage etc. I do not get what these people expected? Maybe they just have to complain? The original Harry Potter books are very much books for children or young adults and so is this movie. It is a highly entertaining story in a magical universe with some adventure, some suspense and a lot of humor.

The magic and the magical animals are quite cool. The pocket universe (or whatever they are called in the Harry Potter world) is simply gorgeous and cool. The story is not really much to write home about but it does not have to be. This is a magical movie where the magical atmosphere is what makes the movie. It is a good enough story involving a bit of suspense, action, friendship, bad guys, quite some humor and, of course, a lot of magic. More importantly perhaps, the story is not overly stupid nor does is try to peddle crappy SJW nonsense messages about gender or diversity nor climate. This movie delivers where it counts as far as I am concerned. It is entertaining, plain and simple.

If I should endeavor try to find something to complain about it would probably be that the lead character was fairly bland. He did not really have much charisma. That and the fact that I never really understood which, despicable (presumably) acts the main opponent, Grindelwald, had actually committed before the events of the movie.

On the whole I enjoyed the movie a lot and although it is perhaps not the absolutely best movie I have ever seen but it still deserves a top rating.

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" is a cute, funny, and enchanting film that I had a lot of fun with.

It doesn't cheat itself by using nostalgic or references to win you over. It manages stands on it's own feet and give us a fresh look of the wizarding world. That's the biggest praise I can give to this movie, as you can watch this without any acknowledgment of the Harry Potter films and you still know what's going on. I know fans will embrace this spin-off and rightly so.

Eddie Redmayne was excellent as Newt Scamander. He's likable, engaging, and has a very distinct personality. The same goes to Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski who isn't the annoying sidekick that I thought he was going to be. He added a lot to this film, which is the laughter and heart to the story. Come to my surprise, his character towards the end was the most emotional part of the film.

The rest of the cast were pretty solid and I can easily see fans falling in love with the characters.

Katherine Waterston was good as Tina, who's investigating the strange things that's going on in New York City.

When I said that Fogler brought the laughter and emotion to the story - well Colin Farrell (Percival Graves) and Ezra Miller (Credence) brought the dramatic elements. Both of their scenes I found pretty intense and was more interested in that story-line.

David Yates can be a hit or miss for me. (COUGH COUGH "The Legend of Tarzan" COUGH COUGH). I did like "Order of the Phoenix" and "Deathly Hallows: Part 2". The other's on the another hand, not so much. But I can say this about Yates, he understands the universe very well and him returning to direct must feel like home to him. While the action scenes are basic and duels aren't that special, but the best part & the main focus are the characters.

My issues with the film are mostly with the effect's, editing mistakes, and the heavy exposition scenes.

I kinda wish there was more practical work with none-effect characters. Like the Goblins or Elves didn't have to be cgi and could've easily had make-up on. Because the effect's for them looked fake and pretty bad which is unfortunate to say. It really did stick out and not in a good way.

Overall rating: There's plenty of room for improvement for "Fantastic Beasts", but the flaws didn't stop me from enjoying the film. And I don't mind that there's gonna be five of these. Seriously, I don't mind at all.

JK Rowling's new Harry Potter world-extension isn't so much a prequel as it is a loose, distantly relevant novella. People wave wands and use familiar lingo. Footnotes from the wizarding world take flesh and form out in the wild and there's a bit of familiar name-dropping to keep us all invested.

Eddie Redmayne takes top billing as the introverted naturalist with an extensive collection of traveling wildlife, but as the name implies, the beasts themselves are the real stars here. A live-action jaunt through the monster manual, it's an interesting, unusual turn if not a terribly fulfilling one. Many times, I felt like I was digging through the guts of an info-rich companion book and not a free-standing tale. There's the framework of a story, of course, but it's awfully dry, light fare and the real focus is quite clearly on establishing a deeper lore for the growth of the franchise.

The effects work is strong, as it desperately needed to be, and I enjoyed the unexpected aesthetic of magical society at play in the roaring twenties, but there isn't a lot of meat on these bones. Disappointing, since the Potter films are brimming with precisely the kind of depth, warmth and rich, implied back-story that this is missing.

I’ve seen this movie quite a few times. In the beginning I did not think I would like it. Why? I have no clue. I wasn’t really paying attention and I knew that it was from the Harry Potter universe but I thought it would stink. Boy was I wrong. LOL I was wrong!

The way they build up the characters and their back stories in movie number one was fabulous!

I also liked how they left some mystery to characters such as leta lesteange.

Now, I know this will not be a popular thing to write, but it must be sad. Movie one. This movie. The character of Queenie made me fall in love with her. She was charming, intelligent, head in the clouds adorable, naïve but not in a bad way..

[spoiler] Part of me wonders if Jacob really is the man for her. I love Jacob. He is beyond awesome. He’s a good catch for any lady. Muggle, which, or a squib, but she had never been exposed to Muggles before. So how does she know that Jacob is the one and only. Did she fall in love just because it was the first muggle she was really exposed to?

Because she knew from his thoughts that he found her very attractive and intriguing and that was very flattering to her. Because let’s face it, for as beautiful as she was she has a very shattered self-esteem. She knows a lot of men think sexy thoughts about her, a lot of women are jealous and spiteful towards her, but has anybody ever truly appreciated her?

Even her job. She says it “Tina is the career girl“ she just serves coffee and is just like whatever. She downplays herself so much. She downplays her intelligence and her worth so much. And I don’t understand why. If she’s exposed to other Muggles and has choices, would Jacob still be her “one and only”?
If you have seen movie number to them please keep reading. If you have not seen movie number two and don’t want to know a spoiler them please turn your eyes away

NOW TURN AWAY NOW

Any movie number to something very strange happened to the character of Queeny. It’s like she turned into a very very very very very very very very very very very very insecure, clingy, insecure, clingy, very strange female.

Jacob has proven to her that she is his one and only, she can tell by his thoughts, they are sincere and true, but yet she puts him under a spell To make him go to Newt and to force him to marry her in another country?!

And you can tell this has been a long going argument between both of them. He would have no problem getting married to her ,but in America it is illegal ,and she would go to a place like Azkaban, and he was not going to lose her.

His biggest fear was them being caught, him being obliviated, her being thrown in wizard prison, and what if they had kids?!

So she basically enchants him and forces him to another country, and was going to manipulate him magically into marrying her, and being happy about it , despite his very real legit fears, and the very serious consequences.

So that’s what kind of pisses me off. They took a beautiful intelligent charming character such as Queenie when they could have build her up they made her look like a Stage 5 Clinger!

Her reasons for jumping ship and leaving her family and the supposedly love of her life behind so freaking easily was because she thought Nazi Johnny Depp was going to all of a sudden make it legal for Muggles and wizards to get married in America?!

Considering his beef is with Europe. OK then. And of course he will say any and everything the person needs to here to manipulate them. They immediately picked her out of the crowd because she is so vulnerable and has such a low self-esteem [\spoiler]

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" is a cute, funny, and enchanting film that I had a lot of fun with.

It doesn't cheat itself by using nostalgic or references to win you over. It manages stands on it's own feet and give us a fresh look of the wizarding world. That's the biggest praise I can give to this movie, as you can watch this without any acknowledgment of the Harry Potter films and you still know what's going on. I know fans will embrace this spin-off and rightly so.

Eddie Redmayne was excellent as Newt Scamander. He's likable, engaging, and has a very distinct personality. The same goes to Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski who isn't the annoying sidekick that I thought he was going to be. He added a lot to this film, which is the laughter and heart to the story. Come to my surprise, his character towards the end was the most emotional part of the film.

The rest of the cast were pretty solid and I can easily see fans falling in love with the characters.

Katherine Waterston was good as Tina, who's investigating the strange things that's going on in New York City.

When I said that Fogler brought the laughter and emotion to the story - well Colin Farrell (Percival Graves) and Ezra Miller (Credence) brought the dramatic elements. Both of their scenes I found pretty intense and was more interested in that story-line.

David Yates can be a hit or miss for me. (COUGH COUGH "The Legend of Tarzan" COUGH COUGH). I did like "Order of the Phoenix" and "Deathly Hallows: Part 2". The other's on the another hand, not so much. But I can say this about Yates, he understands the universe very well and him returning to direct must feel like home to him. While the action scenes are basic and duels aren't that special, but the best part & the main focus are the characters.

My issues with the film are mostly with the effect's, editing mistakes, and the heavy exposition scenes.

I kinda wish there was more practical work with none-effect characters. Like the Goblins or Elves didn't have to be cgi and could've easily had make-up on. Because the effect's for them looked fake and pretty bad which is unfortunate to say. It really did stick out and not in a good way.

Overall rating: There's plenty of room for improvement for "Fantastic Beasts", but the flaws didn't stop me from enjoying the film. And I don't mind that there's gonna be five of these. Seriously, I don't mind at all.

Was a really fun movie for me, had the Harry Potter feel I loved and the story or rather the two plot lines didn't feel as disjointed as some people made it out to be before I even watched it. The dark stuff remained an undertone until later which imo wasn't a bad move and again the transition between them felt smooth to me. My issue with the movie though was Tina's actress, omg it's been a long time since I saw such a dead actress. Every time she was on, she sucked the energy right out of it for me, it's the first time I see her in a film but damn. A far cry from how Fine Frenzy was, not sure if it's intentional and she's supposed to be like this but it still shouldn't feel like that. I mean Eddie Redmayne has a very quiet character but not once does he give off the same feeling that she does. Since I'm on that topic, kudos to Ezra Miller for one awesome job.

Other than that it was really enjoyable, I'm glad that I get to watch 5 of them and I'm curious to see what'll happen from here on out. For the Fantastic Beasts part, I have a vague idea of how the dark stuff can return.