Fifteen years later after the movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone movie came out in 2001, J.K Rowling has come up with a new adventure in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which came out in theaters on November 18, 2016. Newt Scamander, a young activist wizard from England, visits New York while on his way to Arizona. He always carries a leather suitcase, that contains a wide variety of magical creatures. The creatures range anywhere from tiny stick like ones, to huge impressive ones. After Scamander’s suitcase gets mixed up with that of an aspiring baker named Jacob Kowalski, demoted Auror, Tina Goldstein arrests him for being an unregistered wizard. While the case is in possession of Kowalski, a few of the fantastic beasts escape from the suitcase and roam free wreaking havoc. Goldstein, Kowalski, and Scamander end up going on an adventure, working together to catch all of the creatures, protect the muggles, and keep from being exposed.
The movie stars Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski, Alison Sudol as Queenie Goldstein, Katherine Waterston as Tina Goldstein, Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald, Samantha Morton as Mary Lou, and Colin Farrell as Percival Graves. All of these actors played their parts well, everything looked real and I can not imagine all of the hard work that these actors put in, to try to meet the expectations that people had for these characters.
The structure of the movie, was similar to the Harry Potter movies, but it was not as dark. Many people thought that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was going to be another movie in the Harry Potter series, due to the fact that it is uses the same terms and mentions a few of the characters from those movies. Even if it were supposed to be apart of the Harry Potter series, it would have been the worst movie out of the series. To me this movie was just hard to get into and it was just boring. It started off slow but I thought maybe it will get better and more exciting. It did towards the end, and even then it was only exciting for like five minutes.
Director David Yates did a great job with the lighting, setting, and special effects throughout the movie. Watching it in 3D made me feel like I was apart of the movie. Yates has also directed Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in 2007, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in 2009, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part one in 2010, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part two in 2011. He is expected to direct Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2 in 2018.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them might be a good movie for those people that really enjoyed the Harry Potter series. I thought it was okay, but definitely not the best movie that I have seen. If you are interested in purchasing Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, it will be available on DVD sometime in March.
