Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – Movie Review

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is set in 1926, location New York City. Newt Scamander played by Eddie Redmayne, has just completed a worldwide expedition in order to find and document Fantastic Beasts. As he arrives in New York he runs into a No-Maj (the American for Muggle) called Jacob. This spells disaster as the magical case full of Fantastic Beasts is opened and some escape. The fact that these creatures wanter the No-Maj world could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.

Fantastic Beasts – Review

The first thing to be impressed with is the recreation of New York in 1926. If you thought the recreation in the movie Brooklyn was good then you have to see this.

The film starts with how New Scamander loses the case full of Fantastic Beasts and magical creatures. It’s a bit slapstick but a good watch. There is a lot of setting up in this film, as there are 4 or 5 more movies in the franchise to follow. A lot of what you see is educating you so you can follow the future films. Basically, as we know from Harry Potter there are wizards and non-wizards… Wizards and Muggles (or No Maj in the USA). The 2 worlds don’t know of each other and that’s the way it should be. However, when the magical creatures escape from the case these worlds collide.

The chase is now on to retrieve the beasts and get everything back in order. However, there is a dark undercurrent as a spectral type of dark energy is ripping up the streets and killing. What can be done? Can they recover the beasts in time and revert things to normal?

Overall it is a really good watch. There are very few low points in the film, you are entertained throughout. However, that being said, for a lot of the film I couldn’t understand Eddie Redmayne’s words. It looked as if he had a speech impediment or something. During the film, I called him Mumbledore! I can’t understand why this was, or what direction was given when portraying the character. The No_maj, Jacob, is very likeable and I hope he returns in future films.

The creatures are amazing and there are some great visual effects as you would expect from a Harry Potter sub-franchise. Well worth going to, keep the ears pinned for what Newt is saying and you will be ok.

Overall Review Score