J.K. Rowling has done it again.
The first addition to the new wizarding world spin-off, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, is hitting theaters this weekend and it will no doubt be a huge hit.
Being a Potterhead myself, I admit that I was a bit weary when getting ready to watch the film. Many things went through my head like does this movie keep true to the ideas that Harry Potter’s world held, are the graphics going to be good, will David Yates continue to bring his magical touch to the big screen? What was I going to do without the faces of Harry, Hermione and Ron?
After sitting for a bit over two hours just staring at the screen in awe I can whole-heartedly say that you will NOT be disappointed.
The film carries a great mixture of mystery, darkness, magic and secrecy and even a bit of comedy. It’s fast paced with witty comments, a hell of a story line and endless surprises that really gave off the feeling of a J.K. Rowling original.
The movie starts off with the classic Harry Potter theme song playing while the huge logo with the movie’s name on it takes up the screen (at this point I had to refrain myself from completely fangirling out). The movie then opens up with a montage of different newspaper headlines that catch the audience up on the unknown terror that has been hitting the streets of 1926 New York City that seems to be an object of magic and the disappearance of a man named Gellert Grindelwald (trust me he becomes super important in the end).
We are later introduced to awkward yet knowledgeable Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), a magizoologist, who heads to NYC in the midst of chaos to capture some loose magical creatures. Redmayne can now add this film under ‘Greatest Roles’ because he definitely nailed his character. He created his character to be a perfect mixture of smart, nerdy, awkward and completely lovable.
Moving along, Newt ends up bumping into (literally) a no-maj (no magic person) Jacob Kowalski (Dan Folger) who becomes the comedic relief. The two accidentally switch briefcases, which leads to the unfortunate release of a few magical creatures. Newt and Jacob are then forced to quickly become friends and endure on a journey of catching the loose creatures. The boys are then joined by sisters Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) and Queenie (Alison Sudol). It’s easy to tell right off the bat that Newt is quite smitten with Tina and Jacob with Queenie, but the fact that Tina was trying to turn Newt into the authorities definitely put a damper on the possibility of a love story.
Of course we cannot forget the performance of Ezra Miller as Credence. In every scene Credence was in my heart truly broke a little. Miller did a phenomenal job of portraying a fragile, paranoid and all together really scared young man who ends up being more powerful than he could ever imagine.
The ending does have you leaving with a tear as you have become so attached to Jacob. He is the outsider with good intentions and the guy who got the girl who is way out of his league. After everything the clan has gone through because of the very strict Wizard world law no non-magical person can have any memory of magic they have seen. That means good ole’ Jacob had to get his memories wiped clean. As if Rowling and Yates weren’t messing with our hearts enough, they displayed the sad scene during the pouring rain and before they part Jacob and Queenie share a passionate kiss. Skip forward a couple days and the movie pans to Jacob opening his very own bakery with pastries shaped like magical creatures. The film then simply ends with Queenie in his shop locking eyes with Jacob as they both smiled and boom the end!
The film left several questions unanswered, people unidentified and leaves us with a hope that Jacob didn’t forget about everyone. The film will leave the audience wanting more and leave major fans with tears knowing that the wizarding world has finally returned.