Yes, it's not as good as Potter, but it has its charms.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Grade: B-
Director: David Yates (Harry Potter)
Screenplay: J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter)
Cast: Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything), Katherine Waterston (Steve Jobs)
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 133 min.
by John DeSando
“You're an interesting man, Mr. Scamander. Just like your suitcase, I think there's more to you than meets the eye. Kicked out of Hogwarts for endangering human life with a beast, yet one of your teachers argued strongly against your expulsion. I wonder... what makes Albus Dumbledore so fond of you, Mr. Scamander?” Percival Graves (Colin Farrell)
Graves’ (The chief of security for the wizard world) comment in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them suggests the homoerotic subtext of Harry Potter and sums up the fantastic elements of this Harry Potter prequel (70 years): Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), magizoologist and shy scientist, carries a suitcase of strange animals that also serves as a portal escape hatch.
His job is to protect these little ones as he says from “the most vicious creatures on the planet, humans.” In 1926 prohibition NYC, he searches for lost beasties and new species and encounters the covert magician population and various human beasts as well.
His brown luggage bag is filled with these little creatures, including an adorable green twig, Bowtruckle. Yet, the most loveable, Niffler (a mole with a duck’s bill), has escaped on search for shiny objects to fill his kangaroo-like pouch.
Let’s settle this for me right now: veteran Potter director David Yates’ Fantastic Beasts is no Harry Potter—it lacks the depth of characterization and the intricacy of the Hogwarts world. It still, however, has the zany fun with exotic wizards and varied No-Majs (American Muggles) like the sweet, bungling baker, Jacob (Dan Fogler), who bring us back to J.K. Rowling’s Potter-like world.
Actually, I find eccentric and crazy characters boring after a while; I nodded off a slight bit, especially when Eddie Redmayne’s British accent is garbled or when just too many lightning wands, explosions, and strange animals overpower the narrative. Redmayne’s Newt is also too cute with his patented bashfulness, stammer, head held down, and hardly talking.
I am not sure young kids will be able to keep up with the plot, so have them read the titular text book beforehand so they don’t fall asleep. “I don’t think I’m dreaming and I ain’t got the brains to make this up,” says Jacob. Keep your brains awake for this twisty, Potter prequel and you will be rewarded with beaucoup beasts and a few of the human kind.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
