Review of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) by Dan L — 23 Aug 2017

A enjoyable movie overall, but I have a lot of issues with this film. The first is the main character, Newt Scamander. He's not nearly as interesting as the supporting characters, such as Tina, Graves, or even Jacob, as the only thing he does in the movie is capture magical creatures that escaped from his suitcase. His storyline felt irrelevant to the main plot, which involves an entity destroying NYC and the wizards and witches has to stop it before they're exposed to the Muggles. Sorry, but Muggles sounds better.

The movie falls apart when Queenie was introduced, and her relationship with Jacob felt forced. Ezra Miller's character was also very annoying. I understand that his character was abused, but his constant whining made him the most irritating and unlikeable character in the film. There were so many plotholes and the plot twists were very predictable.

The movie also tried to condense its mythology, but I don't understand why J.K. Rowling had to cram in so much mythology into one film when there are four more movies planned for this franchise. She wrote the screenplay as if she's writing a book. I understand she wanted to expand the Harry Potter universe, but Fantastic Beast was just more of the same but done better in the Harry Potter movies. The Fantastic Beast universe isn't nearly as immersive as the Harry Potter universe. Nothing in Fantastic Beast felt like it was set in the '20s, except for the clothes and vehicles. The wizarding world looks almost identical to Harry Potter, as if nothing has changed in the past 70 years or so. I guess it wouldn't be nearly as nostalgic if the wizarding world in Fantastic Beast looked drastically different.

I do like the cast (with the exception of one) and the set-pieces, but Fantastic Beast was underwhelming. I'm not even sure if it's better than the worst Harry Potter movie and I don't think I would be interested in the sequel, unless Tina returns in the next film.