Not a Harry Potter Copycat by any Means

Rating: 9/10 (22 December 2016)

From my perspective, the Harry Potter saga peaked at Prisoner of Azkaban, then began a long slide downhill into progressively darker, drearier, and more cheerless story lines. This film has a flavor of an early Harry Potter film, where everything is still a surprise. Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) is a magical zoologist and conservation activist in the 1920's. On a visit to New York, he runs into Kowalski (Dan Fogler), a Muggle, and accidentally switches cases with him. So Scamander has to chase his escaped critters down. This brings him onto the radar of Tina (Katherine Waterston), a semi-disgraced magical police inspector. They also meet Tina's ditzy sister Queenie (Alison Sudol), who, though not exactly oversexed, is a mind reader and fully aware how men react to her. In the background, however, is a plot within the U.S. version of the Ministry of Magic. Villain Grindlewald (Johnny Depp) has assumed a false identity and is plotting to launch a war against Muggles. Grindlewald is defeated, Tina is restored to her job with honor, and though Kowalski has to be wiped of his memories, he gets a gratifyingly happy ending. Tina is an absolutely enchanting pixie of a heroine, but she doesn't do much, not so much from misogyny as because she has to chase after Newt and events at headquarters are hidden from her. And in contrast to the haunting themes of Harry Potter, the music is forgettable. But a load of fun. Oh, one last point. Some occultist complained that while Harry Potter used actual mythical beasts, the beasts in this film were "made up." Trust me, they're every bit as real as unicorns and griffins.