Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Colin Farrell, Dan Fogler, Samantha Morton, Ezra Miller, Dan Hedaya, Jon Voight, Ron Pearlman, Zoe Kravitz, Johnny Depp
Directed by: David Yates
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) comes to New York City to travel down his fantastic beasts.

Review:
Tim: Although I never read the books, I was a big fan of the Harry Potter movies. I liked all of them and loved several of them. So, I went into Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them with as open a mind as I could. I had a nagging sensation asking whether we really needed a prequel series set 70 years before the events of the first franchise, but I was willing to trust that the film would deliver. Imagine my consternation when I discovered this film to be a shoddy effort, a lackluster film in every sense. I know they're going to make quite a few of these movies, but after this one, I have very little interest in continuing. This movie isn't very good at all. It uses up any goodwill that might have come from the Harry Potter series. This is a bad way to start a franchise.

The biggest issue I had is that the characters aren't compelling. Audiences fell in love with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and for good reason- they are incredible characters. In this film, we have Newt, played weirdly by Eddie Redmayne. I have no idea why I'm supposed to care about this character. He's pretty boring and we don't really get to know him well enough here. He makes for a weak protagonist. Much of this is due to the poor writing, but Redmayne deserves some of the blame here. He might be a great actor, but didn't play this part well. Honestly, I can't really remember any of the other characters (which is a massive problem). Katherine Waterston was fine, but I didn't love her performance or her character. Dan Fogler was a scene-stealer because he brought much-needed comic relief to an otherwise dull affair. Colin Farrell was decently sinister. Ezra Miller and Jon Voight had good supporting performances. And yet, while the cast might have some bright spots, Redmayne and Waterston just didn't work nearly as well in the top two spots. I didn't really care about them- I wasn't given a real reason to invest in them as characters. That doesn't suggest good things for the rest of the films in this franchise.

The other issue I had was that the plot was all over the place. It took forever to really get the story going. In the early part of the film, I kept wondering what was going on and why I should care. The story as a whole is remarkably weak. There might have been decent moments now and again, but as a whole, the story is very poor. Now, I'm going out on a limb here, but perhaps the story is so bad because this film is an adaptation of the book by the same name, which (to my understanding) is written as a textbook that students would have used at Hogwarts. So this film is really the adaptation of a textbook. Think about that. Obviously, it's turned into a story for the film, but there's really none of the magic of the Harry Potter franchise. This film feels like a too heavily CGI'd cash grab. If you like Harry Potter, you'll probably tolerate Newt Scamander and this watered down, cheap effort to make more money. Honestly, this movie is often boring. It's absurdly long at 2 hours 13 minutes. It easily could have been twenty minutes shorter. There's way too many characters and not enough focus on any of them. This movie tries to set up an entire world here and it just fails.

Now, to be fair, this isn't a completely terrible movie. There is admittedly some pleasure in seeing the world of Harry Potter, 70 years before the events we now all know. There's always something fun about seeing the spectacle of magic on the big screen. The film relies too heavily on CGI, but the movie itself was technically well made. It did win an Academy Award for Best Costume Design. Still, while there are positives, as a whole, this movie is a disappointment.

I wanted to like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, I really did. Unfortunately, director David Yates (who inspired confidence in me when I heard he was selected) isn't able to translate the magic of his Potter films here. This movie made a bunch of money, but I truly believe it's vastly overrated, that people thought they liked it because of their love of Harry Potter. Eventually, these movies' box office earnings will decrease, as people realize the movie itself isn't very good.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Harry Potter franchise