RATING: B-
We thought we were all done with the Harry Potter series and Wizarding World, right? The final book came out almost ten years ago, and the final movie came out a little over five years ago. But now we're back again, with a new series of films centering around the HP universe. Because J.K. Rowling decided she couldn't leave well enough alone. She *wrote* this film, in fact; and she is writing the ones to come.
This is set back in the 1920's in America; thus, you won't see any of the usual beloved characters here. In fact, aside from this taking place during the Grindelwald era (thus, he's a part of this film, albeit briefly) and a brief mention of Dumbledore, the only character whose name you *might* recognize is Newt Scamander, our main character--a researcher who is writing a book about magical creatures (hence the name of the film). These creatures whom he keeps in his suitcase. All of them. His suitcase being practically a magic portal to another world or something.
And due to an accidental suitcase mix-up with a Muggle (or a "No-Maj," as they're called in America for some reason) named Jacob Kowalski, some of these creatures end up escaping. Which causes chaos, of course. And there's already enough chaos in New York as it is, what with there being an evil dark CGI cloud ripping through the area, destroying stuff and killing people as it sees fit. As stupid as *that* sounds, there's actually a rather clever explanation for it--but in typical prequel fashion, it's something that we probably should have heard of in the original series, but we didn't, of course.
This movie is a pretty mixed bag, even if it just manages to come out on the enjoyable side. There are some things in this movie that almost contradict things from previous books/movies. Namely, the character that has Legilimens abilities (mind-reading) which seem *way* more overpowered than I remember Legilimens being. And then there's the "beasts" themselves. Pretty much all of these creatures are neither seen nor mentioned in the main HP series. Granted, it's quite plausible that what we've seen/read before hadn't quite scratched the surface of the various magical creatures out there, but I feel like we would've heard of a giant hippopotamus-esque creature before. And the beasts in general just range from fitting in well in the magical world to looking more like Star Wars aliens or something.
Oh, and director David Yates, who has mostly done a pretty darn good job with the HP series before, showcases his greatest flaw again by showing off *way* too much wandless and wordless magic. There's a part where a villain literally makes something fly with just his hand--as if he's using the Force or something instead of magic.
Regarding the good, the plot is actually fairly clever once it comes to full fruition. And there is a shocking twist near the ending which is quite nice. Our new main characters--which include Newt, Kowalksi, and Tina and Queenie Goldstein--aren't as endearing as our previous characters from the original series, but they're surprisingly not half-bad either (even if Eddie Redmayne's mumble speech gets a little annoying at times). And it is pretty interesting to see the Wizarding culture in America, which often shows its differences. Though most of the actors and actresses here are relatively less prolific than the ones in the original film series, they're pretty decent too (including Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, and Colin Farrell).
On one hand, I kind of wish Rowling had left the HP universe as was with the end of Deathly Hallows. On the other hand, it is an interesting experience, returning to this universe and seeing a new part of it. With five of these movies coming *and* a possible trilogy or something coming out of Cursed Child, it looks like we're still in this for the long haul. This isn't a bad first installment, but there's loads of room for improvement. I don't know if my patience will last for all five movies, but I certainly am looking forward to more Johnny Depp as Grindelwald, if not much else.
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