So I've never been the biggest Harry potter fan. Sure, it's fun to imagine yourself in that world and to pick your houses and your pets and whatnot, but I found the world and story a little off for some reason. It never really helped that I couldn't get into the books...
But back in 2001, I was at the height of my Potter hype. So much so that I got a wonderful copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to find Them, complete with scribblings in the margin by one H. Potter (scribblings which I duly copied and then got in trouble for, for writing in a book with notes in the margin :P ). There was no story to Fantastic Beasts, it was more like an encyclopedia of all sorts of bizarre creatures of the wizarding world (which now I think about it, opens up a whole raft of questions about the nature of magic and the world itself); no matter, I loved it anyway. I liked reading about the strange and fascinating creatures inhabiting the magical world, wondering exactly what they looked like, and wondering how they all lived.
And now, we get to see them on the big screen.
The story of Fantastic Beasts goes like this: Newt Scamander arrives in New York in 1925, at a time when some mysterious creature is causing chaos and threatening to reveal the wizarding world to the American muggles (helpfully called "No-Maj" to differentiate them from their European counterparts). This is not great news for Newt, since he has come along with a suitcase full of magical animals at a time when pets are forbidden in NY by the magical council of America (The MaCUSA, of all things; pronounced like "Yakuza" but with an M). Almost as soon as he arrives things begin to go wrong, with several of his creatures escaping and causing chaos in a bank. His antics draw the attention of disgraced auror Tina Goldstein, who takes him in and agrees to help him recapture his creatures. Along with her mind-reading sister, Queenie, and bumbling No-Maj Kowalski, Newt must race against the council to recapture his creatures and try to figure out what's threatening the safety of New York wizards.
As far as stories go, it's light-hearted and whimsical, but in true Potter style the world's dark underbelly hides more sinister characters. In their hunt for the destructive creature, the ministry has assigned to the task Auror Graves - played in smooth and convincing fashion by Colin Farrell, of all people - who has turned to the new Salemers, puritan witch-haters who are constantly on the lookout for signs of magic. This side of the story is dark and colourless, in stark contrast to Newt's whimsical, colourful romp through New York. Which is not necessarily a bad thing; this shift in tone gives it a heightened sense of drama, making the colourful moments seem all the more colourful, and when the two stories intersect we get splashes of colour within the darkness. It's a beautiful movie.
The whole thing has a feeling of watching some bizarre magical Dr Who. Eddie Redmayne's nervous English charm and know-it-all manner feel perfectly suited to early-reboot doctor, and the whole adventure has that small character-driven feel the best Dr Who episodes always had. Whatever Scamander is doing, it is always less important or amazing than his companions - he braves this stuff every day, and you get that feeling of certainty and safety towards him, but for the other characters he interacts with, you can see their shaky nerve and the fear in their eyes. I get the feeling with Fantastic Beasts that the story is never about Newt, and that is as it should be - his character is, for the most part, uninteresting. He is a typical hero - it is the people he surrounds himself with that make the story.
Indeed, that may be why I can see so many parallels with other franchises in Fantastic Beasts. Dr Who, Star Wars, Star Trek - Newt Scamander is an everyman who can be what you need him to be, and that makes him a good hero.
I want to emphasise, this is in no way a bad thing. This may be J K Rowling's first screenplay, but if she has borrowed from other sources they've been good ones. And her usual talent for creating interesting and likeable characters is still there - Queenie and Kowalski in particular, they are engaging and intriguing and I want to continue to hear about them - so the film never feels like it's just going though the motions. There's genuine story and intrigue there, and it works well.
What doesn't work so well, I find, are the opening and the ending. The film introduces us in some nondescript location (at this point I couldn't even tell you if it was a house or outside or what - and I saw it yesterday!) as some wizard does something to some other wizards (again, I can't say what - there's a flash of blue and all the other wizards fall over). This person, the newspaper articles which open the credits helpfully tell us, is Grindlewald, and then we cut to Newt and we hear nothing about him for the rest of the movie.
This and the ending felt like a bit of a cop-out, like we were being introduced to this character and we don't even see his face and he is in no way important to this plot. But the movie opens with him because.... reasons? Honestly I still don't get the opening. Nor do I understand why she felt the need to add that particular ending to the action (when the fights have finished, you'll understand what I mean. Whether you like it or not is not for me to say, but I found it cheap at least, if not worse). Thankfully the movie doesn't just end there, and we get a heart-wrenching moment before an epilogue of sorts as Kowalski takes centre stage and really shines for the finale. It's a real happy ending, but Rowling adds in a couple of nice final twists that really work for it.
Look, the introduction is five minutes, and the last-moment plot twist to the action is even less, and they're the only bad points I have for this movie - aside from some confusion over wizarding rules and procedures, but I'll tweet JK about those anyway and just hope she responds - because the rest of it is so beautiful, and mixed in with a brilliant plot between the moments of whimsy as Newt tries to contain his escaped creatures, and the characters really are brilliant and they all get their moments to shine...
Honestly? This movie is worth it. It's not necessarily original, but what's there is a little different and interesting and just, well... magic.
Adieu!
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