Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them- Review

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is the ninth installment in J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world and these films persist to be something fresh and unique for every audience member to enjoy. After a five-year hiatus of J.K. Rowling’s magical film spectacle, the world returns with a disparate feel from the previous eight installments. To start off, the viewer is not expected to have any knowledge of the wizarding world. Furthermore, Fantastic Beasts delivers a sense of awe from this illustrious world that hasn’t been present since the first installment of the Harry Potter series. Although the CGI in this film is undeniably evident, its purposefulness of this technique adds a sense of enchantment to the audience’s feel of extravaganza. Fantastic Beasts also provides a light tone with an abundance of comedy that manages to deliver each and every time which also shows that the entire cast was truly having an enjoyable time while making this film. The acting from every single actor was also an applaudable feature and Eddie Redmayne still continues to be one of the best working talents in the film industry.

Now another noticeable feature in the film was its odd direction from David Yates. With the previous four installments, David Yates did a great job with their direction. However, certain scenes from the film came off a little unusual. There was a scene in the beginning in which two characters were crossing paths and there were incredibly fast cuts back and forth that just came off awry off screen. Another directional flaw was when there was a sequence of a set up shot of a building, then Eddie Redmayne’s and Katherine Waterston’s characters walking towards that particular building, and then another set up shot of the same building. Directional choices like these made the film seem a little offset.

However, the positives of this film overshadow its negatives. Fantastic Beasts is a great film and a great new installment in J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world. With its completely unalike feel from the previous Harry Potter installments, the film manages to deliver something fresh for all audience members to enjoy, and as of now it is in my “Top Films of 2016” list. With the return of this magical world that we all have loved, there is a feeling of refreshment in the fantastical aspect of film which further proves that J.K. Rowling can truly write a great piece of work for all types of media outlets. Fantastic Beasts gets an 8.5/10.

FUN FACT:

Six years ago today, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 1" came out.