Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

User Review

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  TheMovieDiorama

  7 / 10

  The return of JK Rowling's magical world of wizardry, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is about a Magizoologist named Newt Scamander arriving in New York where he finds himself mixing briefcases with someone who then unleashes the magical creatures within...and so he runs around the city trying to retrieve them all again. Does that sound like a plot to you? I mean really? Because believe me when I say this, the film bordered on boring. But of course with a budget this massive, the production, acting and visuals are all going to be splendid. Eddie Redmayne plays the lead character and whilst I did find his acting incredibly annoying for the first five minutes, I slowly adjusted to it and found that his character was rather endearing. He did a good job. Dan Fogler plays the 'No-Maj' (that's a Muggle for us British people) and adds a much needed comic relief to the film. Everyone else in the film was fine, nothing memorable. Actually, Ezra Miller was decent as a young troubled teenager who succumbs to abuse. This brings me nicely to the story. Oh dear. This film had none for the duration of its long run time. Three quarters of the film involves Scamander trying to retrieve his lost creatures, this is where it gives the film a chance to show off its production and visuals which it does so brilliantly. The last quarter suddenly turns into this dark, abusive storyline where there is death...and that is where the film picks up and actually attempts to establish a story. But the two do not match and it's like watching two separate films. Considering this is aimed towards families (including young children), I don't think they would happily watch the last quarter...it's just too dark compared to the whimsicalness of the majority of the film. JK Rowling herself wrote the script and was essentially trying to bring nostalgia to the generation that grew up with Harry Potter, this is not particularly well suited to the newer generation. Moments of forced character development, scenes of pointless romance and a ridiculous amount of plot conveniences...it was just lazy writing with no natural transitions. I have to give major props to the creature designs as many of them looked gorgeous, particularly the Thunderbird and the mischievous Niffler. The production was also great, the setting of New York 1926 was perfect and felt fresh for the franchise. It might sound like I'm hating on this, but apart from the story and script the film was pretty decent...I just wanted it to be so much more. Overall, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was a welcome return to the imaginative world of magic with great visuals, production and acting but with a tedious script and lack of plot it did border on boring.

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