Movie Review - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

A little while ago, Warner Brothers announced of a slate of films that they would be doing for the next several years at least up to 2020. In those slates, we found out that they hope to continue the DC Extended Universe in the hopes to compete with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and so far, they have done well financially, but as far as opinions go, its mostly negative, but I see it as more mixed than negative, especially as DC fans like myself are defending the films. As well as that, we also know that the LEGO Movie universe will also get an expansion with a sequel and several spin-offs in the works (one of which will come out next year starring a particular man that dresses like a bat). So that's 2 of their financially successful franchises that have done considerably well so far, even if the reviews for DC's films have not gone down well. But those two were not the only franchises mentioned as J.K. Rowling (author of the Harry Potter books) has returned to take on screen writing duties for a new saga of films that serve as a prequel and spin off to the Harry Potter films, taking place in the past and being a mix of American and British as opposed to just full on British (with some Irish and Scottish actors) as seen in the Harry Potter films. Is it as fantastic as the film says? Well let's find out:

The year is 1926 (approximately 70 years before Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone) and a wizard known as Newt Scamander (played by UK National Treasure, Eddie Redmayne) who would later become the author of the book this film is named after, arrives in New York on his way to Arizona to deliver a present. Newt stops at some kind of preacher talk on the wizarding world being real and dangerous and soon enough gets himself caught when he bumps into an aspiring baker called Jacob Kowalski (played by Dan Fogler) and gets his case mixed up with his. This then attracts the attention of former auror Tina Goldstein (played by Kathrine Waterston) who after witnessing Newt and Jacob's mischievous actions, takes Newt into her custody. But when some of Newt's beasts escape his case (which is like Hermione's magically expanded handbag and kind of feels like the Tardis in a way seeing as the case is indeed bigger on the inside), this causes major problems in New York and he along with his new friends, must re-capture these beasts before the magical world gets too exposed. But as time moves on, it may look like getting his beasts is the least of Newt's problems when something in the darkness unleashes itself to the muggle world.

Now before I say whether its good or not, its important to note that I went to see it and the film to begin with had technical issues, but otherwise, didn't affect the film at all (in fact, it worked in my favor by removing the ads all together) apart from a few seconds of missing audio at the beginning. Its a great film. Its not what I would call better than Harry Potter, but its a great film that unintentionally feels very festive and warm and of course magical. The most I can criticise is that there are some tongue and cheek insults and references to Hogwarts and Dumbledore (but mostly the former over the latter in that) which are ok in some way. Also I kind of felt that the person in charge of America's Ministry of Magic was a bit too uncaring in that she only focused on what she claims are more important matters and not what our heroes were trying to do. And also the whole calling unusual people freaks which started in the X-Men films is also mentioned here in probably the most d***hebag way I have ever seen. But aside from those criticisms, the creatures look great, its well acted throughout and whether you see it in 3D or not, it will still look as magical as ever. 9/10