A good fun wizarding film

Rating: 7/10 (24 November 2016)

After watching all of the harry potter films in preparation I was excited for fantastic beasts and where to find them an I did enjoy this film quite a bit but it's probably not as good as fans want it to be. The premise of the film sees the adventures of wizard of newt Scamander 70 years before harry potter as he tries to recapture his beasts that are let loose in new York. Eddie redmayne plays newt and he does a very good job in the role. You believe him as this wizard as he bumbles his way through this film as a loving wizard that you can believe in and enjoy watching. Dan fogler plays the human with no magic an he is easily the funniest characters in this film and possibly the most interesting character in the film. He is the most relatable character in the film and I really enjoyed watching him. Colin Farrell plays the magic detective in this film and he is a pretty interesting character as he is on the hunt for Scamander and the beasts. I particular liked the scenes he had with Ezra millers character who was also good in this film as it was interesting to watch. Katherine waterson and Samantha Morton Play a couple of witches in this film and they were good but mostly used as love interests that didn't have loads to do in this film. The story has some interesting moments with the search for a dark magic that involves Farrell. But overall I felt like there was too much going on in this film and some of the story arcs felt unnecessary. The hunt for the beasts tries to connect to the dark magic but it feels like two separate stories that don't connect very well. The script has allot of humour in it and for the majority of it I found this film funny. Unfortunately, the drama jut doesn't hit and you don't really buy any of it. The style has some absolutely beautiful creature designs that were really interesting to see. Also the use of magic was great to see and very unique but familiar to the other films. But this film has a few pacing problems in it and the film lulls to attempt to set up sequels and nothing else really. Overall I enjoyed this film and if you are a fan of harry potter you have already seen this film and if you haven't it is worth a watch but don't set your expectations to high.