Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the first Harry Potter movie without a book as it’s narrative source material. The book Fantastic Beasts… was released more as a fun textbook-like guide of the creatures of the Potterverse, written by Newt Scamander, the playful pen name of Potter creator J.K. Rowling. So when Warner Bros. announced not one, but FIVE films based off the book — a reference book, mind you — I was skeptical that they could pull it off. Warner Bros. brought on David Yates (a veteran of four of the original Harry Potter films) to helm all five movies, cast Academy award-winner Eddie Redmayne as Newt, and J.K. Rowling serves as the screenwriter, making these films true extensions of the Potterverse. What could go wrong? Turns out, quite a bit.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them takes the “Wizarding World of Harry Potter” back to 1926, and even brings it to America. Muggles are called No-Majs, there is a different governing body (the Magical Congress of the United States of America — MACUSA) and even a different wizarding school over here in America. Rowling’s attempt to explore the differences between America and England’s wizards basically ends there. It turns out that 1926 also had a mad wizard, this one called Gellert Grindelwald, who sought to end the secrecy of the wizard community by way of force against muggles and no-majs. And the MACUSA has to join the Ministry of Magic and other governing bodies to try and stop him.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens with a quick attack by an obscured Grindelwald and then a series of newspaper headlines that come on the screen too fast to be read and absorbed. Then we meet Newt Scamander (Redmayne) traveling across the Atlantic on a boat, a suitcase presumably full of creatures in hand. Newt is not in New York for 10 minutes before a creature escapes and Newt is forced to try and recapture the tiny Niffler, who is attracted to shiny things. The Niffler makes its way to a local bank where Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) is applying for a loan to start a bakery. The Niffler episode causes Jacob and Newt to band together by happenstance, and the two men’s similarly looking cases get mixed up. Newt is apprehended by Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), who works for MACUSA, but no longer as an Auror. When Tina takes Newt before her superiors, she is sent away. One man, Percival Graves (Colin Farrell), her former boss, takes note of Newt and his case and opens it up, only to find it full of delicious baked goods.
Across town, Jacob opens the wrong case and accidentally lets out a few of the fantastic beasts, which causes Newt and Tina, and Tina’s mind-reading sister, Queenie (Alison Sudol), to try and collect the escaped beasts and return them to Newt’s magic suitcase.
While these shenanigans are going on, a group called the Second Salemers want the world to know that witches exists and they want them all burned, just like in the original 17th century Salem. Mary Lou Barebone (Samantha Morton) and her adopted children Modesty (Faith Wood-Blagrove) and Credence (Ezra Miller) work for the Second Salemers in spreading the witch hate, though each could possibly have magical abilities.
All of this comes clumsily together as Rowling rolls out her now patented (and tired) character twists, and it leads to a final battle across New York as Newt’s group and Graves and the MACUSA try to stop some evil “monster” called an Obscurial, which is more like a vengeful spirit than an actual “fantastic beast.”
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has some fine moments, usually when Fogler is on screen. His character is the most likable of them all, and the audience will root for him. The problem is, for a film called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, I would expect some actual fantastic beasts. We don’t actually see anything until 40 minutes into the story, when Newt takes Jacob into his briefcase and shows him the collection. But even then, only four or five of the beasts are used in the film. The movie shines when we meet these cool beasts, but when we go back to the real world of the MACUSA, and the leads bumbling around New York, the film stalls. Graves’ motivations are never really made clear until suddenly, in the third act, he’s the bad guy, and everything on-screen goes awry.
Not having a source book to fill in the gaps, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them makes me question how the original Potter films were perceived for those who never read the books. Were they also this convoluted and inexplicably insipid, and the readers just gave it a pass, or were those just better films? I’m a Potter reader, so I can’t answer that, but I can say that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them fails to create the magic that seems to come naturally with J.K. Rowling’s stories. It almost feels like we are just going through motions until the character twist (to prove this point, the same character twist was also used in the recently published Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stage play, highlighting the fact that these twists are all Rowling has up her sleeve, and maybe she should concentrate more on telling magical stories set in this incredible world that she created than trying to swerve her audience — book or film.)
The performances in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them are solid all around, with Fogler heading the class, as mentioned. Farrell does a fine job as Graves, but again, I’m still not sure of his motivations in the whole narrative.
Yates’ direction is serviceable, though I wish he would focus more of the the source of the films — the “textbook” — and less on previous Potter films. This could have been a mandate from the studio — one in great need of a huge franchise after the DC Comics Extended Universe franchises seem to disconnect with audiences — and not on Yates himself. The fact that we have four more of these films to come tells me that someone better get their stuff together and focus on what this part of the franchise needs — fantastic beasts — and less on an americanized version of Harry Potter.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has many faults, and they come from the script that was written by this world’s creator. A solid cast, some great music by James Newton Howard, and some underhanded social commentary can’t bely the fact that there might be a lack of magic in Rowling’s creative well these days, and maybe, this world is ready to just move on.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is rated PG and is in theaters on November 18.
