Directed by: David Yates
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Colin Farrell, Dan Fogler
Rated PG-13, 133 minutes
Maybe the greatest achievement that J.K. Rowling has pulled off in her career is that although her fictional universe has included seven novels, eight movies, a handful of digital materials, a stage play, and now a series of sorta-kinda prequel movies, somehow the world isn’t sick of it yet. I think that’s partly because, when it comes to the movie theater, the Harry Potter universe promises a few things reliably: extensive special effects, wholesome humor, and climactic battles between good and evil. “Fantastic Beasts” delivers all three, of course, but it also has the feel of a conglomerate cashing in on its brand. Not that that will stop anyone, myself included, from buying tickets now and in the future.
Set in the 1920s, “Fantastic Beasts” follows the magical creature researcher Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything”) on his first voyage to New York City. No sooner is he off the boat than his specimens, which he keeps locked in a deceptively spacious suitcase, escape and run wild in the city, exposing the magical community’s secret existence to the “no-maj” (nonmagical) world. A demoted worker from the magical government, Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston, “Inherent Vice”), discovers Newt’s transgressions and tries to take him in, but she finds that the creatures have already made their acquaintance with Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler, “Kung Fu Panda”), a no-maj baker whose bewilderment at encountering magical beasts endears him to Newt. Together, the three have to recapture the escaped creatures, but high up in the government ranks, a wizard investigator, Graves (Colin Farrell, “In Bruges”), has suspicious plans up his sleeve for the creatures and for the city.
J.K. Rowling is known for her obsessive attention to details, and it shows throughout the movie, which marks her first foray into screenwriting. She knows that a fantastical story is only as good as its laws of physics are consistent; you won’t leave the movie stuck on a plot hole or wondering how a plot device worked. Unfortunately, a movie that exists to establish historical background for a fictional universe is bound to bury itself in exposition, so be ready to keep track of several different magical creatures and to learn the American versions of all the British wizarding lingo we spent 10 years learning in the Harry Potter books and movies.
Luckily, as was the case with most of the films from that series, the quality of the production is solid in just about every aspect, so even if you get lost, the movie pulls you along in other ways. Legions of effects artists and designers contribute much-needed consistency and variety in a movie where nearly every frame contains some kind of digitally rendered creature or spell. A stacked cast, with cameos and appearances from everyone from Jon Voight to Samantha Morton to Johnny Depp, ably and energetically brings the characters to life; Redmayne’s charming aloofness foils Waterston’s anxious pluckiness, while Fogler delivers some welcome comic relief along the way. Farrell’s Graves is appropriately seething, but he’s a little flat and shapeless, and as his plans become clearer he begins to feel like a villain from a different movie.
That mismatch is indicative of the movie at large. Now that Rowling is moving beyond the well-tread grounds of Hogwarts, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what sort of movie “Fantastic Beasts” wants to be, and it ends up a strange amalgamation of three different movies. Partly a catalog of magical creatures à la “Pokémon,” partly a Harry Potter prequel, and partly a superhero movie, “Fantastic Beasts” doesn’t fit into any particular niche.
It gets away with biting off more than it can chew, though, because at its core, this movie, as with the books and movies that made Rowling’s name, is simply about the accomplishments that are possible for those who do their homework and try to do right by their friends. As long as Rowling writes and produces these kinds of feel-good stories without falling into schmaltzy after-school-special territory, I don’t mind paying up to the cash cow.
Originally published in The Harvard Press on 12/2/16.