Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

So I have never been a huge Harry Potter fan. But I grew up in a generation of kids that Harry Potter was one of the biggest franchises out there. I remember going to see the last movie and my friends balling because it was the end of an era for them. While I sat back and was interested, but not nearly invested.

But that was in 2011. I suppose I should've guessed that the Harry Potter universe wouldn't be gone forever. And not only is there this movie, there's apparently going to be a whole new franchise of these films. Believe me I will talk about that.

Fantastic Beasts takes place in 1926 New York, 70 years before the events of the first Harry Potter film. A wizard by the name of Newt Scamander (played by Eddie Redmayne) is studying magical beasts and he makes a stop in New York on his studious journey. Along the way he runs into a No-Maj (no magic individual) by the name of Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) and they accidentally swap suit cases. One has Jacob's baked goods, the other one has all of Scamander's magical beasts. Jacob accidentally opens the case releasing a few beasts into New York. Newt, Jacob, and two witches, Tina Goldstein (played by Katherine Waterston) and her psychic sister Queenie (played by Alison Sudol) all go on a journey around an on edge New York worried about the existence of wizards and witches.

To foil them, Colin Farrell plays Percival Graves, an Auror who has a secret of his own, using the help of a young man by the name of Credence (played by Ezra Miller) he is doing his job as basically the police of the wizarding world, while also hiding a secret.

And that's the first big issue I have with this movie. I won't go into too many spoilers, but there is a bigger story that they are obviously building up towards to space this story out for four or five more films. And while the movie is a pretty self contained story and I appreciate that it wasn't force feeding me the idea that there's going to be more of these films, that doesn't really disguise the fact that this movie is nothing spectacular. It is fun for sure! Its cute! But if this keeps getting bigger and the stakes keep getting bigger, this movie is really going to be seen as just a launching off point. Its not a huge complaint because I did like the film, but I couldn't help but thinking that this was obviously building up to something bigger when I would have rather just started big. You know?

Its funny because when Eddie Redmayne was cast in the main role for this film, I immediately thought this was a brilliant idea. And the first trailer where you actually see him wave that wand around, he looks like he fits right in with the rest of the world.

Newt Scamander is a pretty quirky guy and he has a real gift for dealing with these animals of the magical world. Unfortunately, that's really the only thing you learn about Newt. He likes animals, he was expelled from Hogwarts, and he has a thing with someone in the LeStrange family which is a name Harry Potter fans will recognize. You don't really know anything about Newt and the movie really kind of keeps at a pace where you never really figure out much. I'm sure we'll learn more and Redmayne does do a good job making him likable despite not really knowing anything about him.

I had to look up who played Jacob Kowalski and I was surprised to figure out that its Dan Fogler. I've only known Fogler from movies like Fanboys and Balls of Fury where he's the gross fat guy. Kowalski couldn't be farther from that. He's sweet, he's a fun comic relief. You really enjoy the dynamic between him and Newt and I have to give Fogler credit for doing something totally different than I've seen him in before, so much that I didn't even recognize him.

You know how I mentioned that Eddie Redmayne felt like he was perfect for the world of Harry Potter? Well I think Colin Ferrell is a close second to fitting in perfectly because I absolutely loved Ferrell's character. In the Harry Potter books you always heard about Aurors and how they were basically the Jedi of the wizarding world. Colin Ferrell looks fantastic in this world and he's really good in this film. You spend the movie wondering, is he a bad guy, is he a good guy, is he just the authority figure who doesn't know the real truth, it's done really well.

I do have a big issue with where his character goes at the end of the film, but I can't say too much without giving spoilers away. But let's just say I wasn't really happy with the ending. Regardless, Colin Ferrell was definitely my favorite part of the movie. He definitely brings the intrigue and the fantastic parts of the wizarding world that couldn't really be explore in full in the Harry Potter films. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a second.

Katherine Waterston and Alison Sudol were fine in this film. We probably could have done without Sudol's character but hey, Dan Fogler needed a romantic interest.

I thought Waterston was fine in this film. She didn't exactly stand out but she was a serviceable female lead. She is like the rest of this movie. Cute. She's a strong female lead but nothings really extraordinary about her. I'm not sure if she's coming back for one of the future films but she might need another film for me to consider her a strong character to help carry this franchise moving forward. She is a former Auror in the American magical world and that is something really fun to explore in this film.

All the Harry Potter films took place in the UK and there really wasn't any mention of the American wizarding community. This in my opinion was one of the stronger parts of the film and something that will be really fun to explore in future films.

I've tried my best not to compare this film to the Harry Potter films for two reasons. It only has a few connections to the original series, and it's only set in the same world where Magic is a thing. But something this movie does better and I think will do better in the future which actually makes me excited is seeing the magical world of Harry Potter outside the confines of a school. You get to see what wizards do in real life, their jobs their daily routine, which sounds boring but its actually really fascinating and creative. On top of that, seeing No-Maj (or Muggle) relations with the Wizarding world is the film that should have been made a long time ago. There's a really fun Cracked video where they talk about this exact scenario and I can only hope that's where this is headed.

The other really fun part about the movie is the magical world within the suit case of Newt Scamander.

I did think when I saw the last trailer for this film that it was really cool to see the inside of Newt's case and there's  almost a movie's worth of creative ideas that could come out of Newt's Mary Poppins bag. And that was just from the trailer of the film.

Seeing all of that and all the creative beasts is a lot of fun when you see it finally on screen. While I have been critical of JK Rowling for a number of reasons, one thing I cannot deny about her is that she is incredibly creative and really knows how to think outside the box to think up all these insane animals to put on screen. I have to get credit where it belongs.

Overall, the movie is fun. Its cute. But if the story they are inching towards in this new franchise is going to be as good and big as I hope it is based on what I've seen here, this movie is probably going to be the least favorite on a lot of people's list when all these movies come out down the road.

I thought the villain aspect of this movie was, while interesting, pretty shaky. Like I said, I don't like where certain things go in the end and overall, I thought the ending was a bit of a cop out in order to keep things at bay enough so they can really rev up in future films. Unfortunately the movie suffers a little bit because its being held back by future films.

Fantastic Beasts did its job. It was a fun movie that reintroduced people back into the world of Harry Potter. It introduced fun characters that I am interested in learning more about. And most importantly, it set up for at least one more film, but will definitely turn into 5 more films.

And honestly, I more excited about this franchise then I ever was about the Harry Potter films. I think this franchise has so much potential to really explore the world of Harry Potter and its got a really great cast to bring us fun wizarding films in the future.

But what did you think? Did you like Fantastic Beasts? What did you think about the potential for future films? Should I go and review all 8 Harry Potter films? ... that's a lot of Harry Potter... Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. A while back people decided it would be a funny idea to dub in South Park to scenes from Harry Potter. The result is amazing! Enjoy!