Green Goblin Reviews: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
When it comes to Harry Potter, it’s a series that I was pretty much the exact target demographic (the first book coming out when I was 12) and I read the series up through high school and into college. I have a favorite book (Order of the Phoenix) and a favorite film (Prisoner of Azkaban, though that’s less of a contest and more of a universal agreement), but that’s where I tapped out. Never got into Pottermore. Never read the extended universe chapters on the website (I DID read some of the “where are they now?” Wiki entries for characters) and I have no interest in reading the Cursed Child (which, from its synopsis sounds like cheap fan-fiction). So why would I care about Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them? Mainly, because its focus (for once) is completely away from Hogwarts and England as a whole. It’s an exercise in literal world-building, outside of the established comfort zone. And seeing magical JK Rowling creatures and characters talk in thick New York “fuggetaboutit” style accents just makes me giggle like a child.
I’m sure most American kids wondered what the World of Witchcraft & Wizardry looked like across the pond and now we finally have some semblance of that, even if it is only in New York City and only in the Age of Prohibition. During this same time, Dumbledore’s old flame Grindelwald is still in the news, killing Muggles/No-Mags but has completely vanished from the radar of all magical authorities. This has left the American Wizarding world extremely paranoid and desperate to save face for witches and wizards in the new world. Hard ban on No-Mag intermingling and trying desperately to keep magical incidents to a minimum. Hard thing to do however, when what seems to be a magical creature of some sort is destroying whole city blocks and then vanishing without notice. This destruction has brought about a group of Christian zealots called the Second Salemers, who publicly blame the destruction on Witches and call for their eradication (it’s kinda weird that they’re not that far off). And into all of this foreign chaos walks Newt Scamander; protagonist and fictional Author who the film plays as inspiration for his book. A British-born Hogwarts-flunking master of all magical creatures. He serves as our guide into American Wizardry and learns alongside us (“‘No-Mag’?”), while transporting what is essentially a suitcase TARDIS full of magical creatures to the new world. Why is he in New York? Dunno. But through some standard comedy tropes, his suitcase gets swapped with that of an aspiring No-Mag baker who accidently lets a bunch of creatures loose. Now, it’s up to Newt, his new No-Mag buddy Jacob, Tina Goldstien (a disgraced Auror) and her waittress sister Queenie to round them all up and maybe also stop whatever the OTHER creature is too.
So as plots go, that’s pretty by-the-numbers. But what sets it apart is the world this takes place in. Because we’re now dealing with adult magic users, the story doesn’t bother explaining much to the audience about how magic works. There isn’t any learning of spells necessary here. These are characters that are adept at Apparating and Obliviating without so much as a second thought. And it really makes action scenes much more interesting when virtually everyone on the field (except for one) is essentially Nightcrawler from the X-men just on a base level. At one point, a character is shown just using Legilimency as and it clicks with the audience as “Oh yeah!! I remember Harry struggling against that. And with this person, it’s just second nature. Cool!!”. The other thing is finally getting able to see all of the magical creatures that have been described in the book previously, but you never had a visual point of reference. The trailer has already shown the Niffler and some Bowtruckles. And there are more where that came from. It all serves as a better in-depth look at how the Wizarding World actually operates and answers questions that some folks might not have even thought of, otherwise. And in that purpose, it works fairly well.
Now, if only we had some interesting characters to follow around inside that.
Unfortunately, Newt and Tina are about as bland as protagonists come. They attempt to make Newt give off a bit of that quirky Doctor Who sense of whimsy, but ease off of it too often, only allowing a half-measure of what could have been a memorable character. If they’d have just taken him all the way to the Ms. Frizzle-esque extreme (TAKE CHANCES!! GET MESSY!! MAKE MISTAKES!!), his search for said Fantastic Beasts might have been more endearing from the get-go. Tina Goldsein is of the same vain, where if they’d have just made her character something to work with AT ALL, it’d make for a much more compelling narrative. Like with Newt, there are scatterings of what could have been an interesting character arc involving the Second Salemers and a conspiracy B story, but it’s quickly rushed over in a matter of sentences, when it feels like it should have gotten its own time. On their presented base level, I actually found myself gravitating more to the second-string characters of Jacob and Queenie. Yeah, they both are hamming it up and flirting with one another in very over-the-top ways, but you can be more forgiving to an over-the-top performance, if its backdrop is turn-of-the-century New York City with fucking magic as the theme. The plot itself takes a bit of time to get interesting as well, with most of the audience just feeling confused and occasionally chuckling alongside said confusion until the end of the first act, when we learn the stakes and the driving force that set off Newt coming to America to begin with. And the third act feels greata nd compelling until they write themselves into a bit of a Deus Ex Machina for the climax (“Phoenix Tears have healing powers!”)
Sorry to say, but the character development in this film took a backseat to the world-building and makes what could have been a great film into just a decent one. Your mileage may vary, based on how much you missed the Wizarding World. But I can honestly say that for me at least, the trip back was still worth the price of admission. I was never bored, and now that American Wizarding has been established, I’d love to see more. This is a franchise goes toe-to-toe with Star Wars in terms of popularity and brand-recognition. So I’m ready for whatever you have next, Ms. Rowling.
7.5/10
Not bad. You’ve made a world. Not put some better people in it.