Out of Hogwarts and into 1920s America; about 70 years before Harry’s story starts, where Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), an expelled student of Hogwarts has come to New York to research his book on - you’ve guessed it - fantastic beasts.
He’s arrived at a time where anti-magic sentiment is on the rise, and the magic world is trying as hard as possible to avoid exposure to the ‘No - Majs' (an Americanism for Muggles). In New York, through some small mishaps involving his magical beasts, Newt meets Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), an employee of the MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America), her sister Queenie (Alison Sudol), and lovable dweeb Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler). Beasts are lost; fun is had, so on and so forth.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them really succeeds in moments of peril and action. Much of the film is essentially plotless: they lose some beasts, try to find them. There’s nice slapstick, endearing characters and good family comedy, but it doesn't compare to the richness of the Harry Potter canon. But when the sub-plot starts to emerge – something much darker that nods to the history of the series – the film begins the shine.
It’s scary, well-shot and peak-magic, giving the audience action and drama in place of an emotional connection to the characters. And the CGI is phenomenal. Reconciling a twee character plot at the start with the darkness towards the end presents a tension, but there’s always been a darkness in the Potterverse, and it seems only natural that should be included here.
No matter how good the action and wand-flying magic, Fantastic Beasts can’t make up for the problem of its unfamiliarity. The film has a difficult task of rethinking a hugely loved and nostalgic world in a context that is broadly unfamiliar - the setting, the ages of the characters and even the language is different. As a result, there’s something unavoidably uncanny about the film.
You don’t immediately care about the characters and the film doesn’t go out of its way to get you to either. Back stories are mentioned along with links to characters we know and love (s/o to Dumbledore), but that only makes up a small element of this re-framing of a heavily defined world.
What redeems the film is the brilliant magic scenes and unbelievable moments of CGI. Bar the bad-in-more-ways-than-one choice of cameo towards the end (no spoilers) the film is fun and exciting. The characters aren't loveable - yet - but perhaps could become so in time (the series is set to be five films long). Until then, there are some great fight scenes and spectacular visuals to keep everyone entertained.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
