A Bit Lacking Compared To Harry Potter, But With So Much Potential To Become Rowling's Best Series

Rating: 7/10 (15 December 2016)

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them begins with an immediately likable British wizard Newt Scamander (played by Eddie Redmayne) arriving in 1920s New York City. Through a bit of a mix up, he befriends Jacob Kowalski (played by Dan Fogler), a lovable muggle aspiring to someday run his own bakery. Unfortunately, Newt soon discovers that the relations between magic peoples and muggles (called "No-Majs" in America) are strained. Marriages between the two groups are strictly forbidden, and allowing No-Majs to have knowledge of magic society in any way is illegal. Tensions are further strained due to a recent and mysterious series of magic- related events destroying parts of the city, and an anti-witchcraft group who reveres the Salem Witch Trials.
With a suitcase full of larger-than-life animals and an illegal No- Maj friend, Newt is swiftly caught by Porpentina Goldstein (played by Katherine Waterston), an ex-Auror working for the Magical Congress of the United States of America (abbreviated MACUSA). Newt and Jacob end up befriending Porpentina ("Tina") and her ditsy mind- reading sister, Queenie. Like Harry, Hermione, and Ron from J. K. Rowling's original book series, these four diverse characters make up our new dream- team.
Through the eyes of these characters, the film gives us a brief tour of 1920s American magic society, most notably its extremely interesting version of the death penalty and the interior of the MACUSA government building. In addition, we get to see the expansive, museum-like magical biomes inside Newt's suitcase, and finally a real erumpent. However, as we are seeing this heavily guarded magical world through the eyes of an adult accustomed to most of its workings, a great deal of the magic conveyed in the Harry Potter films is lost. The film becomes more of a period-piece with magic, rather than a magical period-piece.
In addition, the color tones of the film are primarily dark and more or less brown, similar to the color scheme of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. This dark coloring is in part to convey the darker emotional tone of both movies, however, as this is our first entry into magical America, it significantly dulls the experience. Another similarity between these two films is the double story line. In Harry Potter, the first half of the film centers around a mysterious book. In the second half, however, the real problem comes to light: a plot to kill Dumbledore. The popularity of both the book and movie for the Harry Potter installment is due in part to the masterful interweaving of these story lines. In Fantastic Beasts, however, the two story lines are almost completely separate. The first is the story surrounding Newt's suitcase and the animals that escape it. The second, and far more emotionally compelling, centers around the anti-witchcraft group.
This second storyline is by far the best thing the film has to offer, and it's a shame that it wasn't woven in as closely with Newt's suitcase as the two Harry Potter story lines. It almost feels like watching two separate movies — one for children during the first half, and one for adults in the second. Although it seems imperfectly worked in to the film, this second storyline is extremely compelling. It centers around an idea briefly but repeatedly hinted at in the Harry Potter books: that a child's suppression of his or her magical ability can lead to one of the most destructive and abhorrent forces possible in the magical world: an Obscurus. Combine this with a young adult who is constantly beaten and abused by his extremely religious adoptive mother, and you get Credence, this movie's main antagonist. Unlike Voldemort, we learn almost right away of the absolutely horrible life of this man, and also briefly his past relationship with Tina.
Once he reaches his breaking point, the magic suppressed within Credence begins to destroy the city, and it takes all of MACUSA to contain him. Newt and Tina are almost successful in calming him down and bringing him back to human form, but they are too late. He is killed, or at least mostly killed, by MACUSA, but a tiny wisp of his Obscurus floats away. Another government worker, who was the cause of Credence's Obscurus release when he denied the boy's ability to learn magic, is revealed to be Grindelwald, previously a friend but now an arch-enemy of Dumbledore, too fond of the mantra, "for the greater good."
Speculation: Throughout the film, it is shown that Newt has some special relationship with Dumbledore and an Obscurus. Perhaps the missing link is Dumbledore's daughter, as the books made it clear that Dumbledore's main regret was that he neglected to care for his younger sister, who suppressed her magic due to childhood bullying, and who ended up killing her own mother. Possibly, she was the obscurus kept by Newt in his suitcase and the girl he mentioned being friends with. As this film series progresses, it is still unclear who will be the main villain. Grindelwald and Credence seem like the clear choices, but which is worse: an emotionally damaged young adult with immense, uncontrollable power, or an extremely powerful and experienced wizard whose ideals ensure the destruction of only non-magic people? J. K. Rowling is still keeping us guessing and speculating, and that's one of the biggest pieces of praise I have for the movie. In all the unexplained backstories mentioned throughout the film, there is still a huge potential for these to be as good or better than the Harry Potter films.