FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM (2016)
Directed by David
Yates
Warner Brothers, 133
minutes, PG-13 (loud action, violent situations)
* *
Fantastic Beasts and
Where to Find Them is a quasi-prequel to J. K. Rowling's acclaimed Harry Potter series. First, a confession:
I am not a devotee of the Potter Universe; in fact, I pretty much gave up after
the first book and movie. For me, it was no Lord
of the Rings and I tagged it a 'tween fantasy not intended for my eyes or
mind. My wife, Emily, on the other hand, was totally hooked. She convinced me
to go see Fantastic Beasts, which I
found to be much ado about very little. But my critique is more than a Muggle's
muddle; neither of us liked the film.
Those who thrilled to every word of Harry Potter will delight in pre-Potter references. The film is set
in 1926, but Hogwarts Academy, you will recall, is ancient. Magic wands
abound, as does Muggle fear of magicians–so much so, in fact, that the Magical
Congress of the USA (MACUSA) maintains a strict code of secrecy between its
members and the No-Maj (Muggle) world. The veil is rent by a series of wanton
destructive acts in New York City, including the murder of New York Senator
Henry Shaw, Jr. MACUSA suspects these acts to have been the work of Gelbert Grindelwald,
a name Potterians will recognize as a legendary dark wizard. MACUSA also has
its Aurors at work tracking down dark
wizards of all sorts. Public displays of magic are pretty much forbidden.
Enter Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), a member of the
British Ministry of Magic and a magizooligist, who just happens to arrive by
steamship to see New York City before proceeding to Arizona to set free a magic
beast. He will, of course, be in the middle of the ensuing mayhem. He's also
the source of our first glaring logical inconsistency. Newt arrives carrying a
well-worn leather case that is stuffed with magical beasties. When a
platypus-like gold-hoarding Niffler escapes, his playful thievery is just
another crack in the MACUSA cone of silence–and makes Newt a suspect. Why would Newt be carrying his entire menagerie? Insofar
as I can determine, this rather curious logic error occurs so Ms. Rowling can
give us a visual Bestiary of the Magical
World. It is an encyclopedic display that takes us from Ashwinders
to Thunderbird by way of Billywigs, Erumpents, Graphorns, and Murtlaps. The
film introduces us to Bowtruckles, stick-like tree guardians that are like
Jiminy Cricket without a face. If you're already lost, avoid this movie.
The narrative arc of this film is more like a series of
ruined bridges. Subplots–such as the rampage of a randy Erumpent– are often
thrown in mostly for comedic wonderment and are often incidental to the story.
There are so many similar departures that I can't imagine a child will be able to
follow much of the story. Or, maybe there just isn't much of one. As it so happens, a powerful Obscura (Say what?) is
loose in the city and Newt will be drawn into the chase, along with a demoted Auror Tina Goldstein (Katherine
Waterston), a No-Maj cannery worker/baker wannabe Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler),
and Tina's bombshell flirt of a sister, Queenie (Alison Sudol), who also
happens to be a Legilimen, something like an empath, I gather. Now are you
lost? If not, there's also the fanatical New Salem Philanthropic Society, a
group of No-Maj extremists headed Mary Lou Barebones (Samantha Morton), who is also
the proverbial wicked stepmother to three adopted children: Modesty, Chastity,
and Credence (Ezra Miller), the latter a sad sack in whom Auror Percival Graves (Colin Farrell) has taken avuncular interest.
Now sit back and watch things go awry and blow up. The film is exceedingly loud
and the action mirrors the chaos of the script.
It's pretty well acted, though I found Redmayne essentially re-channeling
the same awkward shy/fay qualities he exhibited in The Danish Girl, and many of his soft-spoken mumbles were lost on
my impaired ears. Waterston and Fogler steal the screen from him, as Sudol
would also have done had her part been less fluffy. There are also juicy cameo
roles for actors such as Johnny Depp, Carmen Ejogo, Ron Perlman, and Jon
Voight. In the end, though, this is pretty much a standard action film with
magic wands instead of big guns. It's little more than the latest Big Budget
Pic in which all of the money was spent on splashy thrill-a-minute f/x and the
script reads like an extra credit project from a first-year college writing
class. And this isn't just the judgment of a Muggle. Emily's verdict:
"There was nothing magical about it."
Rob Weir
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