Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Follow Genre: Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Director: David Yates
Distributor: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Duration: 133 minutes

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Blu-ray) – Movie Review

Site Score
8.5
Good: Atmosphere, Acting, Harry Potter revisited
Bad: Not much to mention safe for the fact that the atmosphere is quite different than HP
User Score
9.0
(6 votes)
Click to vote
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 9.0/10 (6 votes cast)

Up until about a year ago, we could still hear a fairly constant stream of moans, sobs and complaints that the Harry Potter series was pretty much ‘over’, even though J. K. Rowling is trying to keep it alive. Many hoped we would see more books and/or movies, and last year said wish came true, at least to a certain extent. We head back to the wizarding world, albeit in the past, and in America, for the tale of Newt Scamander and his collection of fantastic beasts. With our wands drawn (no pun intended) we were ready for this spectacular adventure.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

This time we’ll distance ourselves from Hogwarts’ school of magic, but instead go back in the past for about seventy years, to New York, where Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) just disembarked from his ship from London, to visit the states to handle some ‘business’. He claims it is to buy a specific magical beast, as a present for a friend. Nonetheless, while walking through New York, he comes across members of the ‘second Salem’, who preach that witches run among the people, and that those wicked evil beings should be punished. In all the hubbub, Newt’s ‘Niffler’, a small yet greedy beast, escapes from his suitcase. Nifflers are known to steal everything that is shiny, in their almost bottomless pouch. Him being close to a bank, you immediately know what is going to happen with the money in the vault. That aside, Newt runs into a sturdy small fellow by the name of Kowalski (Dan Fogler), who hopes to get a loan to start his own bakery. Again, accidents happen and Kowalski ends up with one of the eggs that Newt was carrying around, which is about to hatch. Before long, Newt, Kowalski and the Niffler find themselves in the vault, triggering the alarm, having to teleport outside.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 1

All of the above was witnessed by Tina (Katherine Waterston) and to make things even worse, Newt has let Kowalski run away without ‘obliviating’ (erasing) his memory. Little did they know, he even grabbed Newt’s suitcase in all the confusion, the one with a massive amount of mythical beasts stored in it. Tina takes Scamander to the MACUSA, which is pretty much the governing body for magic in America, and because of the ban on magical creatures in the US, Tina believes it’s her duty to report Newt. Luckily for him, he also has the wrong suitcase now, and thus no beast is found, and Tina is simply being scolded at her job, again. From here on out, it’s a journey to recover Newt’s beloved creatures before they are put down, as the States are currently in a panic, because of strange events caused by what they believe to be a beast. A beast might be the proper term to describe the thing behind the ravage of the city, but apprehending the true culprit might prove to become a very hard task.

Even though the movie spans slightly over two hours, it felt like it was over in a flash. While the actual ‘punchline’ only happens in the last quarter of the movie, the flow is extremely pleasant, as every character is properly introduced, albeit without that much attention spent on their pasts. Overall the mix of action, wonder and storytelling feels just about right and you’ll never spot a dull moment, even those who have already seen this movie in the theatres, as other small details will become more visible if you re-watch this film.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 2

There’s not that much more to say about the actors, safe for the fact they did a splendid job, most notably Eddie Redmayne plays the part of a very awkward wizard quite well. He is rather convincing in his ways, which makes it seem he likes his beasts more than he does humans. Dan Fogler has an immense ‘like-factor’, not only thanks to the very loveable character he has to play, but pretty much because he simply looks extremely likeable in real life as well. Other big names also pass by in this movie, such as Colin Farrell, Jon Voight and even Johnny Depp, each putting down stellar performances.

On this Blu-ray release you’ll find more than an hour worth of bonus material, which delves deeper into the overall idea behind the movie, and how it came to fruition, as well as many in-depth views per important character and the different beasts. All of these are divided into small separate featurettes, thus you can easily watch a few, and return later. Other than the deleted scenes, you’ll also find bonus content revolving around the design of the movie, which in a way intertwines with the other features, eventually becoming a massive ‘making of’ for this movie.

Conclusion

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, is one of those movies that reopens the wizarding world of Harry Potter, but shows us a completely different side, to wow us once again. Even though both series are tied together, this movie, and its new leading characters, create their own universe, one we hope to explore even further in the future. We can only wait to see how this evolves and how both series will be tied together.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them 3

VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: 9.0/10 (6 votes cast)
VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Blu-ray) - Movie Review, 9.0 out of 10 based on 6 ratings

No Comments

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.