FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM – Review

It’s usually reserved for summer, but for the next few weeks it’s “prequel” time at the multiplex. Of course summer has the “tent poles” and the “franchise” flicks, but two special cases are making a most momentous exception. In about six weeks (December 16 to be exact), film fans will all be abuzz, waiting to journey to that “galaxy far, far away” with ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY, an action fantasy set just before the events of 1977’s much beloved Episode Four. In the meantime, we’re getting a trip back to another movie fantasy world, that of Harry Potter. Actually it’s a history of that setting where “muggles” (human beings) and magical beings mix. This new film peaks behind the pages of one of the textbooks that Harry and his class mates studied at Hogwarts School. Its title? This beloved tome is FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM.

The story begins, of course, many years before Harry arrived at Hogwarts, 90 years ago to be exact. Swooping animated newspapers from 1926, inform us that there’s an uneasy truce between humans and wizards, brokered by the Magic Congress (a group of the supernaturally gifted). The headlines also speak of a destructive entity named “Grindelwald”. One agent of Congress (a magic cop, if you will), Graves (Colin Farrell) is investigating the site of a recent attack. He and his fellow agents are put on high alert against any gifted person entering New York City. Literally getting off the port and going through customs is author/ science research Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) who is stopping over in the states as he track down the title creatures (his tiny suitcases houses a whole “zoofull” of them). While exploring the city, one of the creatures, a kleptomaniac platypus-type of animal, dashes into a bank. Newt’s case is accidently switched with Jacob Kowalski (Dan Folger), a human. He’s a war vet trying to get a bank loan in order to open up a bakery (his case is full of tasty pastries). While locating the escaped beasts, they are “arrested” by Congress agent Porpentina, Tina for short,(Katherine Waterston) and taken to the apartment she shares with her sister, a mind reader named Queenie (Alison Sudol). As the four traverse the burg in search of the “wild things” they try to avoid both human and magic agents while dodging the “anti-witch” zealots led by Mary Lou (Samantha Morton) and her nervous son Credence (Ezra Miller).

The story’s main focus is creature keeper Scamander, and Oscar winner Redmayne handles the role with subtlety and whimsy to spare. He also makes good use of body language to show that this scientist is fairly uncomfortable with people. He doesn’t stoop and slouch when he’s tending his beloved animals though. The film’s breakout star may be the energetic Folger, who makes a most appealing audience surrogate, constantly dazzled by the wonders around him. Kowalsi’s got the panic of Lou Costello, the manic of Curly Howard, and the grace of Jackie Gleason. Waterston plays Tina as an uptight by-the-book enforcer who is slowly melted by the charms of Newt. She’s the counterpoint to Sudol’s playfully sweet (and a bit sultry) Queenie, a bombshell not disturbed (and often charmed) by knowing the inner thoughts of quickly smitten men. She and Folger make quite a charming pair. Farrell’s equally effective as the hard-edged detective (think Jack Webb with a wand), who has a surprising empathy with the tormented twitchy Miller as the somber Credence. He’s terrified of Morton as the street corner rabble-rouser stirring up the masses against the magic folk.

Potter vet David Yates keeps the story moving at a fairly brisk pace, knowing when to amp up the tension with quick cuts or slow things down for a bit to let us gaze in wonder at this new/old world. He’s assembled a talented group of artists who give us a 1920’s Manhattan both familiar and foreign, thanks to the costume design (lots of big flowing coats) and vintage autos and props. And then there’s the CGI wizards that make these beasts both fantastic and fanciful, mixing species (a bird/snake) and instilling them with loads of charm and personality (that platypus is quite the “scene stealer”). All the “eye candy” is complimented by real “ear candy”, that’s the lush soaring score by James Newton Howard. It’s splendid work, but the original screenplay by Potter creator J.K. Rowlings often feels overstuffed, piling too many magic battles and false endings that wear thin. At least we see the destruction being reversed and repaired by the witches and wizards (hmmm, kinda’ like a certain “strange doctor”). Fans of the former series will be eager to leap into the new franchise (at least four more flicks) and most “muggles” will break into a smile while pursuing the first volume of FANTASTIC BEAST AND WHERE TO FIND THEM (at any multiplex, of course).

3.5 Out of 5