By Brett Blake FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM returns audiences to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, albeit 70 years earlier than when last we saw it. J.K. Rowling herself penned the script, and the result is an imperfect - but highly engaging - time at the movies, one which offers some moments of true wonder, staggering production design, and a quartet of excellent lead performances. Taking place in 1926, the film finds wizard Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) arriving in New York City on a mission to return some magical creatures to their native habitats. After a mixup with a non-magical baker named Jacob Kowalksi (Dan Fogler), some of Newt’s beasts escape into the wilds of the city, forcing the pair to team up with two sisters, Tina (Katherine Waterston) and Queenie (Alison Sudol) in hopes of corralling the creatures. In the background of this is a dark and sinister plot involving a magic-hating fanatic (Samantha Morton), her meek and troubled adopted son (Ezra Miller), a sinister magical law enforcement agent (Colin Farrell), and a New York newspaper magnate (Jon Voight). I envision this being a bit of a polarizing movie, with some focusing on (legitimate) flaws and ignoring the many positive qualities, or vice versa. I come down on the issue this way: what’s good in the movie is really good, and well worth seeing. Even if the total package isn’t quite as cohesive as one might have hoped (and it isn’t, at least in this writer’s opinion), the positive elements outweigh the negative ones. Where to start on those positives? We need look no further than any and everything concerning the titular fantastic beasts. They are beautifully, ingeniously designed fantasy animals; their physiologies make sense, and they each seem to have been given personalities which are allowed to come through their actions and behaviors. I imagine children in the audience falling in love with several of the beasts and immediately demanding plush versions for Christmas. The variety of creature design - from identifiable simian analogues, to formless voids of swirling mass - keeps each encounter feeling fresh, and the setpieces involving Newt and Jacob interacting with them are terrific fun. There’s a particular sequence involving Newt bringing Jacob into the magical enclosure housing the animals Newt cares for that is one of the best individual scenes of the year, while the finale offers up an impressive bit of mayhem which makes for a satisfying visceral (if not narrative) conclusion. The production design for the film (courtesy of Stuart Craig, who designed all of the HARRY POTTER movies) is absolutely superb, rendering 1920’s New York in an almost idealized way. Period details on spot-on. Also very strong is the movie’s score by James Newton Howard; Howard is one of the few composers working who still understands the need for big themes, and he delivers here. While’s it’s unlikely any of his motifs in this score will seep into the public consciousness like John Williams main theme for the POTTER series did, Howard’s compositions are memorable, grand, and evocative. It’s one of the best scores of 2016. Across the board, the acting in the lead roles is top flight. Eddie Redmayne is endearingly earnest as Newt, and he just exudes an enormous kindness which fits the character of this man who’s more comfortable among the beasts than among other humans. Dan Fogler is delightful throughout as the audience point-of-view character, the normal guy who gets wrapped up in the goings on; not only does Fogler feel amusingly of-the-era, he also gets the movie’s most emotionally affecting moments alongside the luminous and charming Alison Sudol. Sudol’s work here should put her instantly on everybody’s radar for her ability to handle both the comedic and the dramatic. Katherine Waterston, playing Sudol’s sister, is a welcome contrast and grounds the proceedings in identifiable emotional and intellectual territory; she’s by far the most practical character in the story, which is important when telling a tale of high fantasy. The likes of Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton (saddled with a caricatured role so obvious and one-note it’s hard to believe that J.K. Rowling - creator of Severus Snape, one of the most complex and nuanced characters in recent popular fiction - actually wrote this person), Ezra Miller, and Jon Voight are all convincing, but the script doesn’t give them much of substance to work with, unfortunately. Which leads us right into the movie’s objective weakness: the decision to consciously steer into already-established Harry Potter lore in an attempt to set-up future installments. When this project was announced, my first (incorrect) assumption was that this series would be only loosely connected to the primary franchise J.K. Rowling already created, and that we might get something lighter, something of a more overtly adventurous and globe-trotting quality. Indiana Jones in the Wizarding World and with magical creatures. FANTASTIC BEASTS is decidedly not that. It’s a densely-plotted narrative, laying down threads for the future in ways that don’t always allow this particular movie to feel independent. The big storylines Rowling seems to be playing with mostly feel disconnected from Newt’s story, which is not necessarily a good thing when he’s the main character. Along these same lines, the narrative spends a good deal of time on the fairly grim (sometimes unpleasant) subplots involving the Miller, Morton, and Voight characters which ultimately end up going nowhere... at least in this movie. Perhaps these subplots are more elaborate setups for sequels, but they’re clunky here. For some, FANTASTIC BEASTS will be too much of a mixed bag for the reasons outlined above, and that would be a fair reaction. I do, however, believe the spectacle is satisfying, the creatures are properly fantastic, and the four main characters are a fun group to spend a couple of hours with. With the reservations properly noted and documented, the movie’s positives are enough to drag the movie across the line into legitimately “good” territory.
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