Movie Review: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a 2016 British fantasy film directed by David Yates. It is a spin-off of the Harry Potter film series, which was produced and written by J. K. Rowling. The film stars Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Carmen Ejogo, and Colin Farrell. Released worldwide in 2D, 3D, IMAX 4K Laser, and other large format theaters, the film has grossed over $250 million worldwide.


The story goes like this: The year is 1926 and Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident...were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt's fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is of adventure, fantasy, and family genre, which runs for approximately 133 minutes. It's Rated PG-13 in most countries for some fantasy action violence. For me, the movie was okay. It wasn't great but it wasn't bad either. It didn't have the Harry Potter look and feel, which was good and bad at the same time. Good because this is an entirely new film series within the Harry Potter universe and it had to stand on its own. It's bad because it's like you're watching a Marvel/DC Comics movie. The movie had amazing use of CGI and some of the actors were good, particularly Ezra Miller. The story, however, was quite shallow and the scenes were not as fluid as you'd expect. Overall, I think it's still an enjoyable film to see and I can't wait for the next installment.

RATING: 4 out of 5 STARS

Til then...

xoxo Nash