Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) Sub-Review

Still Think They Should’ve Called It Abhorrent Beasts and How to Avoid Them.

Yo, this be Reuben. I’ve been a Harry Potter fan for a long time, and thoroughly enjoyed a lot of what J.K Rowling’s series has had to offer, so the revival of the series with this new psuedo-prequel was fantastic news, and there were some pretty fantastic beasts on show, so they weren’t lyin’.

Is that all the jewelry you can steal?

Fantastic Beasts follows the story of odd English wizard Newt Scamander as he travels to New York. As it was set in the 1920’s, the peeps behind this thing had a job to recreate the classic old city, and through various sets and CGI they did it perfectly, as the film has a nice and bagel-y shtick. Newt himself is performed by none other than Eddie Redmayne, who is a bit of a middle-class odd-un himself. He’s exactly the sort of character that would pop out in the Harry Potter series, as he’s a quirky, imperfect and decent fellow and one with quite the wizardry skills. He’s a fine protagonist, through Redmayne’s strong performance and the entertaining screenplay that he’s at the forefront of, which is filled with enough magic, character and action to earn a Hogwarts prefect badge.

Fantastic Beasts is perhaps the most “magic” Harry Potter has ever been, as the multitudinous extraordinary beasts on show exemplify along with the constant barrage of spell-casting and new loads of mind-reading. Thus, this movie gets possibly the most important aspect of this witchcraft fantasy right.

Just ignore that unworldly, massive bird over there.

Fantastic Beasts is like Harry Potter’s little and endearing cousin, getting most everything right in its footsteps (aside from a couple of shortcomings in the supporting cast and an unclear antagonist), but going against the grain somewhat with a different aesthetic and taking a more mature perspective than its counterpart.

Although this li’l counterpart of this Christmas blockbuster may be more spectacular and memorable, Fantastic Beasts holds its own pretty damn well and may even rival some of the most elite of J.K Rowling’s famous series, standing out as one of the more pleasant and entertaining movies of the year.

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84/100

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Bringing redundant opinions, Merry Christmasses and Happy New Years to scrollers everywhere,

Reuben (who is sorry for his unintentionally long break from writing).