Beasts lacks perilous adventure Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (M)
133 mins JK Rowling has created a new world in her best-selling Harry Potter universe – that of 1920s New York, where NoMajs (American parlance for HP’s ‘‘muggles’’) live unwittingly alongside witches and wizards who are, as is the common trope now in all fantasy/ super-hero stories, in danger of being outlawed should their magic disturb the human population.
Eddie Redmayne plays the foppish British wizard, Newt Scamander, who steps off the boat in NYC on a mysterious mission with a suitcase of fantastic beasts.
Rowling’s screenplay indulges in some fabulous world-building which will see the success of what will inevitably become a new franchise. Old-era New York is intoxicating, the costuming delightful, and the eponymous creatures as cute as any I’ve seen in a magical realm. To this end, the movie’s setup is delightful.
What lets Fantastic Beasts down is the narrative, or lack of. The film is so set on immersing us in a new environment and introducing us to characters who have left their schooling at Hogwarts and are now venturing into grown-up life, that it seems to forget we need more than curious critters to maintain our investment.
Colin Farrell glowers a bit, Jon Voight has a pointless cameo, and a pair of sisters (Katherine Waterston and Alison Sudol) provide some charms – but there is no coherent story to speak off, just lots of spectacle to lure Harry Potter fans back for more.
World-building without characterbuilding should not a movie maketh, and the final reel reveal of a major movie star gives the game away that a sequel is already in the mix.
While Fantastic Beast sis undoubtedly a beauty of a film, if it’s to reach Potteresque heights and as deserved a fanbase, Rowling is going to have to start writing me some proper, perilous adventures. – Sarah Watt