If it's not a good game or catholic...who do you call?...why Pokematic "hi."
I recently saw Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and let me say, it's an interesting adventure. Let me start by saying, this is not a "Harry Potter movie," this is "a movie that takes place in the Harry Potter universe." What does that mean you ask? Well this is the same wizarding universe that Harry lives in, but it has absolutely nothing to do with Harry. In fact, Harry isn't even born yet, or even his parents for that matter. This is a movie about Newt Scamander, the author of the text book "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" that Harry and his friends use in the books and movies, and his New York adventure.
So in this movie there are 2 main stories with 1 overarching sub-story. The first story is about Newt and his fantastic beasts. He's an English wizard that comes to New York for fantastic beasts. He has a magic suit case that is larger on the inside than it is on the outside (it's magic, roll with it), and within he has basically an entire zoo. After a run in with wizarding customs and a no-maj (aka "muggle"), he loses some of his creatures and he has to track them down. In addition to the general mayhem that magical creatures cause, there is an obscurous that is reeking havoc. An obscurous is a witch/wizard who is suppressing their powers normally because they are embarrassed of their magical powers, and their suppressed powers culminate into a dark force. Since Newt loves magical creatures, and an obscurous is sort of a creature, Newt gets involved with finding this obscurous. As for the sub-plot, there's this group calling themselves "New Salem" who believe witches live among them and must be destroyed. They're mostly conspiracy nuts, but with witches and wizards living among them, they're kind of a threat. In terms of story, it's pretty run of the mill. It's not an epic hero's journey like Harry Potter, but it's pretty good.
Then there are the characters. We have Newt, who is an eccentric magic creature lover. He kind of reminds me of Haggrid, except he lives in a time when people don't like magic creatures. It's kind of interesting how he has to prove to everyone the benefit of the fantastic beasts. Then there's Tina, the wizard customs official and former auror that joins Newt in his adventures with the fantastic beasts. She is kind of a love interest, but it's not a heavy love interest. Then there's Queenie, who is Tina's sister and can read minds. She just kind of comes along for the ride, and to deliver exposition. Since she can read minds, the exposition is delivered in a rather interesting way. Instead of her asking "who's the girl on your desk," she's just like "the girl on your desk, she was your best friend, wasn't she?" It's kind of hard to explain. But then there's my favorite character, Jacob Kawalski, the "no-maj." I don't care who you are, Jacob is the most relatable character in the movie. Why? Because unlike other times no-maj/muggles appeared in the films, they show up for a minute and then get obvliviated if they learn about magic, or don't do anything. Kawalski on the other hand, sticks around for the movie with full knowledge of magic, and everything is new to him. As we see all these magical events happen before our eyes, Kawalski is expressing the same wonder that we are expressing. Sure, he doesn't do much in terms of aiding the story, but he captures what we feel.
So the story and characters are a little lacking. But what makes this good? 2 words, "world, building," and 3 more words, "suspension of disbelief." First lets start with the setting. All the other Harry Potter books and movies take place in the fictional wizarding world of Hogwarts, or in London and the forests of England. With the latter, eh, you see one forest you've seen them all, in my opinion, so it's not that exciting. As for London, well I've never been so as far as I'm concerned, "London, England" could be an elaborate rouse and doesn't actually exist since I've only ever seen it second hand. With the setting of New York on the other hand, I've been there; I've seen the Statue of Liberty, I've walked through Central Park, I drove down neighborhoods that still have the 1920s architecture. Plus, unlike the books and movies that primarily take place in the very distant wizarding world, this takes place primarily in New York. It really helps with the suspension of disbelief. The other thing is the time setting. Unlike the Harry Potter books that take place in contemporary time, with the wizarding world using medieval technology (because magic screws up electricity or something), this movie takes place in 1920s America. All the men wear casual suits, and all the women wear the flapper attire, and all the no-maj technology is stuff I've seen in history books, period piece movies, and museums. It's not like the "wizard robes" and "quill pens" that are common in Harry Potter that I can't relate too. I can go to a flee market and see what is seen in this movie (no-maj wise), so it's much easier for me to suspend my disbelief. Plus I've seen far more "physically realistic 1920s movies" than I have "physically realistic medieval movies," so again, easier to suspend disbelief. Oh, there's also the whole "no-maj" thing. I'm an American, we would say something like "no-maj" over "muggle." All the terms are "American," so it's easier for me to suspend my disbelief than with all the British slang in Harry Potter.
So what about world building? Well when I was a kid I couldn't really comprehend a "wizard world where everyone has jobs involving magic." All I could really imagine is "jobs at Hogwarts" or "jobs in Diagon ally where you sell things to magic children for Hogwarts." With this movie, I saw more of the adult wizarding world. It wasn't all "here's a boarding school, it's magic, but you don't see anything outside it often that isn't our no-maj/muggle world (the Dursleys)." With this movie on the other hand, we see magic customs, magic travelers, and what happens when magic is exposed to the no-maj world. It's really interesting. Then there's the fact that these are all experienced adult wizards. With the Harry Potter franchise, spells and magic got more complex as the characters got older, but it wasn't until the last books/movies did we really see what magic was capable of. This is to be expected since we watch the characters grow and mature in Harry Potter, but it doesn't do much for world building. However, since we're watching experienced wizards and witches, some of whom are experts in their craft, the magic is much more fast paced and epic. This leads to far more entertaining magic sequences. Then there are the fantastic beasts, a component of the Harry Potter franchise, but never fully explored until now, which really adds to what the wizarding world has to offer. And last of all, I NEED to talk about the execution. Now wizarding law and order was never completely avoided in Harry Potter (book/movie 3 is "The Prisoner of Azcaban"), but capital punishment wasn't explained from what I remember. I guess I never really thought about it, but if someone asked I would have guessed a quick "avada kadavra." I won't go into detail since this is REALLY a sight to behold, but this is probably the wizarding equivalent to "lethal injection." The movie is AMAZING world building.
So do I recommend this? Yes, yes I do. Fans of the Harry Potter franchise will enjoy the extra world building. New comers will enjoy the amazing world and easy to digest story (I saw this with my grandpa and he enjoyed it even though he's only seen maybe the first couple of movies). Seasoned critics may not enjoy it seeing that it really is just world building with simple stories, but that's perfectly fine for most people.
One thing I heard is that this is going to be a series of films. I'm not sure how I feel about that, or what that will mean. If it means "we're going to be adapting the story of other text books," I'm all over that. I'd love to see a "potions and herbology" move that showcases the start of potions and herbology, and all the cool things that come with that. Or even a "history of Hogwarts" movie since the brief bit we got in one of the main series books was quite interesting; Grifendore only wants the brave, Slytherin only wants the pure, Ravenclaw only wants the smart, and Hufflepuff wants everyone, and it's not like Grifendore was meant for heroes and Slytherin meant for villains, it just kind of worked that way. As for more adventures of Newt, ehhh, I think I've had enough of him. It's not that I don't like him, but he doesn't offer enough to carry a film franchise, at least from what I've seen so far. Oh well. We'll see. Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
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