A Fantastic Beast all on it's own.

Rating: 8/10 (29 November 2016)

I was not sure if I wanted to see this or not, which is one of the reasons why I waited so long to catch it. Not that I'm a super huge fan of "the Wizarding World of Harry Potter", but I did feel that this film might be a stretch. I remember the book being mentioned in one of the films, but never thought it would be such a big deal that you can make a movie about the author.
Newt Scamander is a wizard and Hogwarts alum, that comes to New York sometime in the 40s with a bag full of beast and the knowledge to handle one that's terrifying the city .
The movie is set apart from the Harry Potter franchise which is really cool. Rather than doing a spin off of one of the other kids that went to Hogwarts with Harry or about one of the teachers when they were students at Hogwarts, JK Rowling goes big showing us a world seventy years prior to Potter and across the pond as they say...across the pond. American wizards are slightly different than those in Great Britain, like there treatment of Muggles (which they refer to as No-Majs).
I think I prefer the adult Wizarding world as well. The film deals with some dark themes like child abuse. Although at the same time it's ironically less complicated. Fantastic Beast reads like an action adventure more on the action side than the adventure.
The film has a pretty impressive cast as well. I was a little surprised that Eddie Redmayne, who just recently won an Oscar off of two back to back academy nominated performances was willing to play Newt Scamander. Than again, he was good in it as the awkward unlikely hero of the film. Ezra Miller has a small role in it, but I guest his starring role as DC's the Flash has not come out yet. Plus Collin Farrell. Not the draw he use to be but still. Overall, an amazing cast. My Favorite is Dan Fogler as the Muggle...I mean No-Maj, who has the fortune of being in the right place at the right time to see all the magic happen.
Fantastic Beast I think is my favorite film in the franchise, not much from me as I'm not a huge fan of the movies or the books, but as a stand alone one of the best action adventures I've seen.