"Fantastic Beasts" is Fantastically Average

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

I, like many other twenty-somethings who were raised on a steady diet of Harry Potter books and films, was absolutely ecstatic when the a new movie taking place within the Harry Potter universe was announced. Unfortunately, high hopes often lead to great disappointment, and while Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is certainly a solid film, it failed to live up to the high expectations set by the Harry Potter franchise preceding it.

Fantastic Beasts opens with a promising premise, involving a mysterious and lovable new protagonist who's left racing through New York City to gather the magical creatures he accidentally set loose, but quickly falls apart when it struggles to offer anything else. Characters are rarely developed beyond the archetypical roles they must fulfill in order for the plot to move forward, and plot beats are hit like dominos aligned in a straight line. The film simply offers little to no unexpected twists or turns, instead providing a linear (albeit, sometimes difficult to follow thanks to some convoluted new exposition which is too rushed in the dialogue intended to explain it) plot without anything particularly exciting.

Of course, that does not mean that this film was terrible. Performances from Ezra Miller and Eddie Redmayne were absolutely fantastic, and J.K. Rowling did a wonderful job creating a beautiful and elaborate wizarding world within the city of New York without simply repeating the same culture depicted in the Harry Potter films. She understands how to make the fictional culture of the wizarding world somehow mirror that of American culture in a way that it makes sense and is genuinely believable within the context of the film.

What the film lacks in creativity with its plot line is also made up for in the creativity behind the magical creatures we see. The creatures are all imaginative and, each in their own right, endearing so that the audience wants the film's heroes to succeed in their duty of protecting the adorable little things. There is also a sense of realism to the behavior and mannerisms of the creatures, because they are wild animals, after all - not unlike the realism depicted as the culture differences between London and New York's wizarding worlds are made clear.

My final praise to sing of Fantastic Beasts is the fact that this film depicts one of its characters, a heavyset grumbling companion, as so much more than the bumbling comic relief. Instead, he is depicted as equally complex (admittedly, sometimes even more than our protagonist), he is portrayed as someone to admire rather than someone to mock. His weight is never used as a reason to make fun of him, and instead the film teaches the moral of judging people based on their character rather than appearance - a mantra which is often repeated throughout family films without ever being shown as vividly as in this movie.

In conclusion, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is charming and a solid film, but I advise you not to go into it expecting something magnificent or as groundbreaking as the Harry Potter franchise was. Instead, expect to see a solid and lighthearted fantasy movie, and you'll leave the theater satisfied.