Keeping it simple and short, Fantastic Beasts was a decent film which delivered on its promise of taking the fans back to the wizarding world of Harry Potter. Their efforts to recapture Newt’s menagerie are deftly enjoyable, with the creatures a succession of unexpected escapees given form by Rowling’s screenplay and the direction of David Yates, who handled the last four Harry Potter films.
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It’s all fairly entertaining, as Newt the wizard-scholar accidentally lets loose a menagerie of creepy-crawlies in 1926 NY and then confronts the havoc they wreak. Eddie Redmayne stars in the film with support coming from Colin Farrell, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, and Jon Voight.
Eddie Redmayne is the flawless leading man to take over the reigns of main character in the wizarding world after Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry Potter.
There are references to that other Rowling enterprise (Dumbledore is name-dropped), but with a fresh cast of characters, a significant change in locale, and various plotlines all working toward the same destination, this picture thankfully turns out to be its own beast. Take away the relationship to the Harry Potter franchise and I’m afraid Fantastic Beasts would be fighting an uphill battle.
The film – which is set in 1926 – sees Newt stop in NY after a successful mission to hunt down magical creatures.
So J K Rowling has done it.
Don’t get me wrong – there’s plenty of razzle dazzle in David Yates’ latest imagining of J.K. Rowling’s latest entry to her wizarding world (Yates directed the fifth through the final “Harry Potter” films and Rowling is making her screenwriting debut). In addition, the redoubtable Johnny Depp fetches up in a cameo as a Lord Voldemort-like villain.
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“Fantastic Beasts” will open in another 16 markets Friday, including Spain, the United Kingdom and Mexico. This is a good start to a promising series. She could have written another story for children but I appreciate that she expanded the Wizarding World a bit and gave us the perspective of adults stuck in its sometimes rigid systems.
