The Best Place to Find Fantastic Beasts

Release Date：Nov/18/2016

Genre：Adventure/Family/Fantasy

Director：David Yates

Cast：Eddie Redmayne、Colin Farrell、Ron Perlman

Viola's Rating：7.6

When Harry Potter and his friends’ journey ended in 2011, Potterheads all over the world were sad as if they lost someone whom they’ve grown up with. All students who wish they can study at Hogwarts know that “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is one of the textbooks, and the feature film that’s based on this J.K. Rowling novel was released on November, 18^th to take everyone back to the magic world.

To introduce familiar and unfamiliar fantastic beasts to the audience, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” talks about the adventures of Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), the writer of the titled book and the troubles he creates and faces in New York's secret community of witches and wizards seventy years before Harry Potter reads his book at school.

Potterheads had heard about The Niffler since “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, but have never seen how the little creature looks like. Not only the Niffler is eye-catching, but also are other amazing beasts, some of them are even ones that we’ve never heard unless we read the book. Of course these fantastic beasts add color to the film a lot, and apparently it’s the main topic according to the title, but they take away too much attention from the Dark Arts shown in the flick which are the theme concept.

Also, the main character Newt’s attributes are too much like Einar/Lily in “The Danish Girl” and Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything”. Although Redmayne as an Oscar winning actor knows how to play these roles well, you could still tell that there’s possibility of him being type-cast. Not that his acting in “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is not good, but it’s not memorable enough for the audience to remember Newt.

One good part in “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is that this is the first time seeing wizards and witches outside of UK other than the 2014 Quidditch World Cup, and the first time seeing other government besides Ministry of Magic. The only difference is that it’s called Magical Congress in the US. Just as the book itself will be a certified textbook at Hogwarts, this characteristic helps Potterheads to know more about the magic world and how muggles around the world coexist with wizards and witches.

However, in “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”, people use spells much less than what we see in “Harry Potter” series. It might disappoint those who’d like to rekindle the enthusiasm practicing spells with their wands along with the characters.

Even though “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is not as satisfying as the other franchises, it’s still the best place to find your favorite magical beasts.