Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

I caught up on my movies today. I've been meaning to see this one and needed to see Rogue One (review later), so I said, "You know?  Let's just hang out at the multiplex."

So, Fantastic Beasts.  As always, please recall that I review WITH SPOILERS. There will not be immediate pre-warnings or blanking out.

The verdict?  Eh.... not bad.

Enjoyable, actually.  It's a story about grown-ups in Potterworld, which is neat.  It's in a new setting, which is also neat.  Eddie Redmayne is a blast, and the critters are cool.

But...

I don't know.  Something didn't entirely click.

So, the elements of the story are all not bad.

Plot: Newt Scamander, author of future!Harry's textbook, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, arrives in New York in 1926, carrying a suitcase full of magical creatures.  The dark wizard Grindelwald is on the loose, but Scamander doesn't have much to say about it. Meanwhile, in New York, a very explosive magical force is destroying a lot of things, and it's being blamed on gas leaks.  A former Auror named Tina Goldstein (related to Anthony Goldstein, later of Hogwarts?) is investigating a muggle (non-maj... was there any reason for Americans to use a different term for this? That one's pretty clunky, so I'll just use Muggle) group called Second Salem, which is calling for the destruction of the wizarding world (though of course, no one else believes they exist).  One of Newt's critters -- a Niffler -- gets free in a bank and causes havoc, which sends Tina after Newt.  Meanwhile, Newt bumps into a Muggle named Jacob Kowalski, and they accidentally switch suitcases.  Jacob doesn't know what's happening, and several creatures escape.  Tina brings Newt in, but is ignored by the upper echelons of MACUSA (the American wizarding government), and they go to find Jacob, though it's too late to stop the escape.  Tina brings both men back to the apartment she shares with her sister Queenie, who immediately falls for the kindly Jacob.  Then there's another attack by the violent force, this time killing a young politician, and for a time, suspicion falls on Newt's creatures.  He explains that the force is an obscurus, a violent expression of suppressed magic, but they don't believe him and sentence both him and Tina to death for breaking the statute of secrecy and possibly causing a war with Muggles.  They're rescued by Queenie and Jacob, and it all comes to a fight with the obscurus, which is the magical energy of an abused teenage boy who was raised by the head of Second Salem.  The MACUSA wizard who's been in charge of the case -- who's been blocking the heroes at every step -- turns out to be Grindelwald in disguise, and he wanted to start a war because he wants to dominate Muggles, as we know from the books. His position is not made especially clear in the screenplay, though. After the battle is over, Newt's creatures help with a mass obliviation spell, which ultimately has to include Jacob (don't worry, Queenie re-introduces herself later), and Newt returns to Britain to write his book, promising Tina that he'll come back.

Yeah... there's a lot of plot. The magical creatures plot is pretty good. The Second Salem plot doesn't quite work, and the obscurus plot is melodramatic to the point of being unintentional self-parody. It reads like about a million poor-ickle-Draco fanfics. But the rest of the movie is quite charming.

Character: Newt is just awesome. Awkward, a little annoying. He's Sherlock Holmes-ian in his inability to fit in.  Smart and kind-hearted as well.  His real purpose in America is to release a thunderbird named Frank back into the wilds (it's Frank who saves the day in the end), and he is willing to die to protect his creatures.  He's also friends with an adorable bowtruckle.  He's not so good with Tina and Queenie (possible romantic heartbreak in his past), but he's delightful with Jacob.  Jacob himself is a great addition to the universe. I thought for a while that he might be excused from obliviation, but he isn't. He's gobsmacked by the magical world, but he keeps up and works with Newt all along.  Tina -- a bit insecure after her sacking, but determined and well-meaning, and able to change her ideas about Newt as she sees the truth of the situation. Legilmens Queenie is a little pushy, but funny and appealing.

Most of the American wizarding government has pretty short shrift. Graves, the persona Grindelwald is using, is more than a little over-the-top, but I'm guessing, with Johnny Depp taking over the Grindelwald role, that the man is supposed to be over-the-top.  The less said about the Second Salem group, the better. I don't mean, "Wow, they're unpleasant."  They're villains, that would be allowed.  I mean, they're soap opera villains, with motives so paper-thin that I couldn't suspend my disbelief over them.

Theme: Don't suppress your talents and gifts, or require others to do so.  Not a bad theme.  I imagine anyone who's been told to give up an aspiration to be in the arts feels it, or really anyone who has a particular talent that's being hidden.  All of the smart kids who feel they have to play dumb to get along, all of the creative ones whose ideas are shot down as absurd, all of the hopefuls ones told to get real.

Setting:  New York City is a super odd setting for that theme, though.  I mean, the essence of New  York is not letting anyone hold you down. You have a city of... what was it in the 20s, three million?  Every one of them chasing down one dream or another.  The only city less likely for the "don't suppress your gifts" theme would be L.A.  (Unless you're talking about a gift as a nuclear scientist, I guess, but in terms of municipal mythos... not so much.)  We didn't see a lot of the American wizarding world, which I'm glad of because I prefer to imagine it for myself, but it seemed relatively interesting.

The other setting is the inside of Newt's suitcase, which is full of magical environments for the beasts.  It has the wonder of Hogwarts in the earlier episodes, and I'd dig an entire movie set in the suitcase.

Style: This movie is in the same style as all of the later Potter movies, with the same effects and design, and, outside of the suitcase, the same bleak, gray undertones so common in pop movies today.  I have no idea why this is a thing, but there you have  it. I guess there's no getting around it.  (Except that Rogue One kind of does... but that's for later.)