Good Enough - Just wish it was more "Fantastic"

Rating: 7/10 (24 November 2016)

I am a big fan of the original Harry Potter series of books and films. I'm re-reading the books now and have seen the films countless times. So it was with great anticipation that I packed the family up and we headed to the local mega-plex to check out the pre-quel film FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM.
And...it was a good enough time for the whole family that competently - if unspectacularly - returned us to this fantastical world (pun intended), but it wasn't...ahem...fantastic enough for me.
Let's start with what was successful. The work of the terrific Eddie Redmayne as our hero - Magizoologist Newt Scamander. The character he created is eminently watchable, charming and shy with a slight deferential gleam in his eye, surely enough to draw an audience into his adventures. Scamander arrives in New York City in the 1920's to find a Fantastic Beast and the adventure begins.
And quite a bit of his adventure is chasing down creatures that have escaped from his magical case. The best - and most charming - of these (and surely the beast that will be sold as a plush this Holiday Season) - is the NIFFLER, a small, furry almost platypus- looking scamp that is attracted to (and hoards) shiny objects. There is also the BILLYWIG and the OCCAMY and the DEMIGUISE and the...you get the picture. Keep an eye out for my favorite - the BOWTRUCKLE and see if you can spot the similarity to this creature and another creature from another MARVELous movie.
Another thing that works well in this film is the setting. Where the Harry Potter films transport you to another world, this film transports you to another time and veteran Potter Director David Yates and crew do a wonderful job in creating this time. It was fun to see the settings, design, color and MAGIC of 1920's era NYC set as the backdrop to this story and when magical things started happening, it felt like it all fit in well.
Add to this the work of Alison Sudol as Queenie - a Legillimen that becomes embroiled with Scamander. What is a Legillimen, you ask? You'll have to see the movie to find out, but Queenie is a very good and charismatic. It helped that she was paired up most of the time with the breakout star of this film - Dan Fogler as Kowlaski a "NoMag" (or Muggle as we know it) who is our eyes into this new world and spends most of the film reacting as most of us would have reacted - with shock, awe and a grin about how great this world is.
And now to what didn't work...
Most of the other characters.
Starting with the female lead, Katherine Waterson as Porpentia "Tina" Goldstein, a former "auror" (you Harry Potter fans know what that is) who is trying to get back in the good graces of the American version of the Ministry of Magic. Tina is bland and forgettable and serves as the "Basil Exposition" of this film - doling out long explanations of what is going on and what their quest needs to be.
Director Yates and Writer Rowling then proceed to do something that is quite hard in a Potter movie - they make the rest of this magical Universe pretty uninteresting. The other Magical characters are 2 (not 3) dimensional. I can accept this as the Villain(s) in this film are 1 (not 2) dimensional. And...I won't even begin to try to understand what Jon Voight was doing in this film. If the villains were 1 dimensional, Voight's character was less than that - can a character be Zero dimensional?
And...the beasts. There are lots and lots of beasts. The list I gave up top is just the beginning of the creatures we are introduced to and that is part of the problem - this film spends so much time world building that it falls short in character building. I felt like I was getting setup of for a much bigger world - and seeing that this is the first film of 5 proposed in this series - that might be exactly what this is. This film might grow in esteem as it is stacked up as the first part of a larger story, but as a film in and of itself, it's fine enough and a good time out for the family.
I just wish it was more fantastic.
7 (out of 10) stars and you can take that to the Bank (of Marquis)