When a movie is made directly to appease a certain fan group, it’s debatable how well the final product will be received, especially when not taking it consideration how rabid a fan-base can be. In the case of the 2016 Harry Potter spin-off film, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, it wasn’t requested by the public and no one was sure how it was going to turn out. On the surface, the concept of taking a new angle on a familiar property (especially one as large as Harry Potter) is not a bad idea, as it will give time to properly fleshed out this wizarding world and allow its audience to explore it more in-depth, something the original movie franchise was criticized for losing focus as it continued. That along with a new choice of location as well as a new time period to explore, the promise was there but it sadly didn’t work out so well. A British wizard and “magizoologist” named Newt Scamander (played by Eddie Redmayne) is an introverted mystical creature loving man who has journeyed to New York in search of one of his runaway pets. Things get complicated when a muggle named Jacob Kowalski (played by Dan Fogler) sees his magical antics and is viewed as a witness by the magical government, which results in Jacob accidentally releasing all of Newt’s magical creatures. Along with a recently fired agent named Tina and her mind reading sister named Queenie (played by Katherine Waterstone and Alison Sudol) the four need to work together underneath the law who now view them as criminals, to retrieve Newt’s escaped creatures before they destroy the city all while under the watch of a conspiring villain named Graves (played by Colin Farrell) and an abused suppressed young wizard named Credence (played by Ezra Miller), whose ready to snap and unleash his newly awakened powers on the world. Though existing as a semi-prequel to the original Harry Potter series, the film throws too much at the screen without connecting them together in a coherent narrative, being more like pieces of concepts rather than a full movie. Instead of focusing on the more colorful light-hearted aspect of hunting magical creatures in a new section of this magical world, it contains washed out environments, a lot of dull political concepts that aren’t fully explored, and a needless amount of dark realism that made the other films dull and less entertaining.

Based on the 2001 Harry Potter guidebook of the same name written by J. K. Rowling (who also wrote this film), it calls into question how much story can come from a source material that is really only a catalogue of creatures. This means there’s room to expanded it into their own creative adventures and one that is more subdued and portrayed in a less aggressive manner that just allows the audience to enjoy the creative lighter side of this world, but that doesn’t really happen. Instead of trying something new, it reduces the magical element and focuses on realistic looking set pieces and overly moody political discussions, which doesn’t mesh with this side-story mentality and just comes across as they had no idea what to do with this minuscule premise. It doesn’t take the extra step to integrate itself into the world of magic, but instead replicate what they already did just with magical creatures inserted. The story jumps from plotline to plotline without any rhythm or flow to them, and none are given time to develop as they either come out of nowhere or just rushed through in order to return to a a previous plot point. J.K Rowling does have a decent grasp of creative world building when it comes to her stories, but she is not a film writer as nothing about this plot feels engaging, fleshed out or like it features a satisfactory three-act structure. This idea of replicating a past style rather than creating something fresh is very evident by their choice of director, with returning Harry Potter director David Yates, helming the film. It retains the later movies dull and colorless presentation and doesn’t allow for a new point or view of delivery of this world. There are interesting concepts and ideas that could have been better explained and further developed if the movie had any real focus, but it tries to be a simple story and a complicated story at the same time, starting with finding magical creatures, to political intrigue, abusive parents, muggle-magical relations, wizard racism and various other dark adult elements that don’t fit in this story.

The characters are likeable enough to hold the film, but none have any real chemistry, which means the connections are unbelievable and it lessens the emotional bond the audience has with them. Newt is a fine character, but not one that feels like a lead. He is given a basic, but harmless personality and it comes across through the acting and the motivation. Eddie Redmayne portrays him well enough, but he leaves so little impact that it’s odd that he’s the main star, especially when two others could’ve fit that role quite nicely. Alison Sudol as the psychic sister and Dan Fogler as Jacob honestly carry a majority of the movie’s goodwill and charm, playing roles that are fuller of life and passion than the others in this movie. Sudol is pretty enjoyable and awkwardly bizarre with her magical powers and sensibilities, and Fogler, despite playing a basic fish-out-of-water character, brings a lot of heart and honest humbleness to his role that it does help him stand out quite well in this universe and the resolution for him in the ending is a good one. Katherine Waterston’s acting ranges from okay to slightly off and her character seems very all over the place and generic, bouncing between acting as some weird love interest to almost having no point all, she feels really misused. Colin Farrell acting wise is fine, but his tone of performance and role feels very out of place in this world. Though the motivation and his plan make no sense, his acting work enough to get by. Ezra Miller is also fine, but they don’t leave much of an impression and isn’t in much of the film regardless besides the end. Though the characters don’t really change or develop through the film, it isn’t enough to be an annoyance, more a waste. It’s hard to pretend like these roles are that much worse than the original Harry Potter franchise as they never really had that much personality either, but they had the advantage of being children in a world of magic and wonder, and that element did help draw people in more as they got to watch them grow and mature along with them. Here, the possibility for magical wonder is there, but the characters don’t feel that engaged with that element.

Though set in a different country and time period, the world doesn’t feel like anything new and unique. Returning to another grey and modernized city, it doesn’t seem like much of a reason for a new locale if nothing aesthetically different comes from it and considering how vastly different real life cultures attribute to their locations, the fact that the one visited in the Harry Potter universe is just another Britain-inspired location is really disappointing.  With only a few instances of colorful locations, the overly color-muted environments and simple looking structures and buildings make the film look very lifeless and mundane, despite having the opportunity to fix it. Occasionally, the film does tap into the magical feel that was promised in the advertising. Even if the creatures that they included don’t look especially realistic and some look pretty ugly, there is a fair amount of creativity and magical atmosphere to some of them. They all look unique and have distinct colors to them and moments when they are involved seem to be the only time the film has any real sense of wonder and enchantment to it, as well as any color besides grey. The action is also very standard and doesn’t have much creativity behind it, but it doesn’t feel like a movie that really needs any action, so it’s not too heavy a loss. It thankfully doesn’t rely on connections to the other films, so it does at least stand on its own and not leftovers from the Potter films (which it would sadly eventually mold into anyway). Whenever it adds in a familiar element from the real world but alters it to make it its own unique creation, it works to the film’s advantage, it has its own identity, and gives the world more credibility. With ideas like memory pool executions and repressed emotional monsters, it’s that form of darkness that fits the world of Harry Potter without going too far, being creative first and not brutally realistic. Though it does factor into that needless political intrigue that this movie doesn’t need, if handled correctly, these discussions about wizard vs muggle separation and racism among the classes could have been intriguing and even clever with its set-up if given the correct amount of time.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them had potential to become a delightfully small but creative side story with a lighter tone and mood than the original series had. Instead, it ironically lacked a sense of unique direction and resulted in it being too jumbled, the characters being good but very standard, and the bright colorful environment possibilities being reduced to another rendition of dry lifeless London with an industrialist feel. If it had more time to flesh out a structured narrative, the creatures were given more screen time and the movie just had fun with its concepts, it could have been more fun and relevant, but what we got was a perfectly adequate film that is slightly confused in tone and sloppy in storytelling.  When the creativity and creatures are involved, it is a more enjoyable film, but this is a film that could have used a lot more magic, witchcraft and wizardry.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,