An engaging beginning, but a bit unfocused on story and characters to deserve a higher rating

Rating: 6/10 (16 November 2016)

Time for the awaited prequel to the Harry Potter films, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The film is set in the 20's, long before Harry Potter's time. It's about the young Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne, who arrives in New York with a suitcase full of magical creatures. Unfortunately some of them escapes and he is force to go and look for them together with the muggle (non-magic people) Jacob Kowalski and the witch, Porpentina Goldstein, before they wreak havoc all over the city. The film is the first in the Harry Potter universe that isn't based on a book but an encyclopedia of magical creatures. J.K Rowling has written the script and also decided to keep the long and complicated title, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Seriously, couldn't they have thought of something better?
At first we are greeted with a lot of news articles before ending up with Newt Scamander as he passes through the gates to New York. Honestly, the film has a slow beginning. A lot of the Harry Potter films begin quite dramatically with an evil dementor, a difficult house elf or a quidditch tournament. Here it takes a while before I'm starting to feel that the film really takes a hold of me. It also makes me wonder what's it really about? Newt is chasing his animals with the company of a muggle and a witch but at the same time we also find out that the American wizard world is quite different from the English one. Apparently there is some sort of interesting cultural conflict that we never really get the answer to. Pity!
After a few fat jokes, a strange mating dance and a long almost completely animated scene in a suitcase, it actually starts to happen something. The evil in the film appears more and you start to understand the conflict. Unfortunately I don't feel that this evilness or the conflict is motivated or developed enough. It lacks a clear vision and a path already from the beginning. What does Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them really want to say? Whose story is it? Newt Scamander's, the muggle who wants to bake, the USA vs England conflict or the American ministry's fear of being exposed and start a war? Also in all this, add John Voight as a political leader with a son who likes to bully boys. Very strange.
Behind all these questions and strange things, there are actually a lot of things to enjoy. The director David Yates continues in the same style as before, however with much more animation. It is charming to see the American wizard society and the 20's New York look good. Also the acting raises the film with Ezra Miller as a strange boy and Colin Farrell as an evil ministry man. All in all, an okay beginning of a new series, but what the next films will be about and what characters will fit in, especially considering that it is said to be set in Europe and eventually include Dumbledore, I really can't say. As I said, an okay beginning but it could definitely have been better.
David Lindahl - www.filmografen.se