Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Well, here we are. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. This movie is carrying on the Harry Potter series and I was really excited for this. Not just because I love Harry Potter and I'm a huge fan of it, but also because the trailers were looking really good and its cast was looking fantastic too. So, did this movie live up to my expectations and actually be good? Yeah, it definitely. It was a whole lot of fun. I do have some problems with it but the positives definitely overshadow the negatives. And I won't be talking about the full story but I will be talking about spoilers so if you haven't seen it yet, go see it and then read this. And the reason I won't be talking about the full story is because it's kinda hard to explain the full thing. But anyway, go see it and then read this. What's the story? It's set many decades before Harry is born and the first thing we see are a bunch of newspapers reading some things. We then meet a man named Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne, who's coming to New York from London and he has a special case with creatures inside it. As he's walking, one of the creatures gets out and starts running around and he tries to chase and they end up inside a bank where he meets a man named Jacob Kowalski, played by Dan Fogler, who has a dream of opening a bakery. And when he spots Newt's creature, Newt gets them out of there using magic meaning he's exposed magic to a muggle. Before Newt can erase he memories, Kowalski runs off and Newt meets another character named Tina, played by Katherine Waterston, who brings Newt in as a prisoner for having the case and exposing magic to a muggle, or "no-maj" as they call muggles in America. Something else that Newt is trying to do is show people that these creatures he has are not dangerous. That they're gentle and friendly while everyone else believes they're evil and should be destroyed. Now, like I said, I was really excited for this. And from seeing other people's reviews of it saying it was another great movie, I went in with no doubts. If you remember, last year I did reviews for every single Harry Potter movie. And while I haven't loved every movie, I still love most of them and this franchise. And I even did a ranking for all of them. I love at least five of them but I still enjoy all of them. And in case you didn't know, this is actually written by J.K. Rowling. As in this isn't based on any book she's written. She wrote the screenplay and so no one going into this know what's going to happen. And I was really pleased while watching this except the ending. I'll get to that in a second but I'm going to talk about the positives. Firstly the cast is amazing. Eddie Redmayne is fantastic as Newt. He's a great replacement for the main character of this new movie franchise and he's also really likeable. He was my personal favourite character in the movie. And the rest of the cast is also fantastic and I liked all the other characters too. The effects as well are super cool like always. And the actual creature are really cool again like always and they're super creative. I especially like that little grass thing that Newt had with him all the time the most. The villains are also cool. There's that evil guardian mother who I really hated who was always mean. Am I the only one who noticed that a lot of guardians in this universe are jerks. First there were the Dursleys and now this woman. And the main villain, who's revealed to be Gellert Grindelwald is also pretty cool. The twist where we find out it's really him was really surprising to me. We knew him already from the Harry Potter movies and he's also the same person who told Voldemort where to find the Elder Wand. And like I said a second ago, the ending is not a complete happy ending. I mean we see another creature named Credence, played by Ezra Miller, and you feel so sorry for this guy. He's been abused his whole life and he's been used for years and at the end when Newt is trying to help him, the other wizards kill him. That is honestly really sad and you feel really sorry for him. And the whole thing where they erase Kowalski and all of New York's memory of what happened is also pretty sad. I also like that David Yates returned to direct this movie because he clearly understands this world and his direction is fantastic once again. And I liked the small Easter eggs in this that tied it into the Harry Potter franchise. Especially the necklace with the Deathly Hallows sign on. I thought that was awesome. And that'll make Harry Potter fans like really satisfied. It's also a really funny movie. Now as far as a few negatives I have, there aren't many. My first flaw is some of the effects are kinda weird. Most of them are amazing. But once or twice they were a bit off. Same with a small bit of the editing. It was good, but a couple of times, there were moments where it was kinda weird. But still, for the vast majority of it, both of those were fantastic. Another is that I thought the pacing wasn't perfect. At times I thought it wasn't the best. But again, it was a good pacing for the vast majority. And my last flaw is that I think that there might be a few too many exposition scenes where we hear people talking and we're going to need that to understand, but at times it was a tad bit too much. But besides that, this is another great Harry Potter movie. If you were to ask me where I'd put it on my ranking of the Harry Potter movies, I'd say I'd put it after Goblet of Fire and before the Half Blood Prince. This is still a great movie and if you're a Harry Potter fan, definitely check it out if you haven't yet. There's also supposed to be a few more sequels and the next one is coming out in two years and I can't wait for them. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.