An Adolesecent Fantasy Tale

Rating: 9/10 (12 January 2019)

20 November 2016. Take a younger Matt Smith from Dr. Who, the British sci fi television series, place him in early 20th Century New York along with an Inception-like (2010) special effects and new visual fantasy world like Avatar (2009) along with a strong ecological theme and you get something like Fantastic Beasts. Fantastic Beasts continues the darker evolution of the Harry Potter world while inserting a comedic older muggle male character to help balance the tone of the movie. Whether or not the expanding beauty of this visual universe will retain its magic or not remains to be scene as Avatar set a new standard of imagination. And whether or not due to budget or technological limitations, the effects were not quite as great as to be expected with all the new visuals that Fantastic Beasts brought to the screen.
The target audience of the movie script might be aptly described as the continuing audience who grew up from the original Harry Potter movies who were in elementary school and grew up through junior, middle school and high school. Fantastic Beasts includes the familiar ominous darkness and stark loss, evil abuse, as well as happiness, joy, and a pitch of accidental stupidity found in most of us.
Overall, Fantastic Beasts is fresh, new, dark, and enjoyable with some meaningful messages endangered species, about child abuse, pain, and compassion and tolerance, something that America needs more than ever now.