geri_chan | Fantastic Beasts review

Well, not so much a formal review than a slightly disorganized collection of my thoughts and impressions. Spoilers below!

I only got around to seeing Fantastic Beasts a few months ago, mostly because my usual Harry Potter movie buddy wasn't interested in seeing something that didn't feature the book characters and I didn't feel like going to the theater by myself. But eventually I picked up the dvd and watched it, and my overall impression was "pretty good, not great, although it does have some great moments."

First off, I feel like it started off a bit slow, at least for me. Partly because we're being introduced to a bunch of new characters that we haven't met before, so we're not already emotionally invested in them the way we are with Harry and company. Or at least, that was how I felt. On the plus side, I liked Newt's beasts--the niffler and the bowtruckle were especially adorable. On the downside, I felt like Newt was kind of a jerk in the beginning of the movie, causing (albeit unintentionally) all that chaos in the bank and planning to Obliviate Jacob, apparently not caring that he would be leaving Jacob to be the main suspect in a bank robbery. On the other hand, maybe that was part of the message of the movie, that Newt came to see Jacob as a person and a friend and not just a random Muggle, or I guess I should say No-Maj, although I hate that term because (imho) that is just not a phrase that Americans would have come up with!

Also, it took awhile for me to warm up to Tina. I was prepared to love her, because I had seen Katherine Waterson doing the talk show rounds, and she seemed engaging and funny, and on a completely irrelevant note, as a Law & Order fan, I was ready to like her just based on the fact that she's Sam Waterson's (Jack McCoy) daughter.

Not that I disliked her, but she didn't really click with me at first, maybe because she spent most of her time chasing after Newt and reacting to what he was doing.

However, when I saw her interacting with Queenie, I started to warm to the sisterly bond, and when we got to the scene with the Pensieve-like pool and saw glimpses of Tina's past, that's when she became a lot more interesting and I got invested in her as a character.

I absolutely did not expect that my favorite character would turn out be the non-magical one, but I loved Jacob so much! And he and Queenie were so sweet together! The two of them were so great that I feel like they kind of stole the spotlight away from Newt and Tina. And the whimsical pastries in his shop at the end of the movie were so great! They should sell them in the theme park, although I suspect that they'd be too difficult to mass-produce.

Other nice moments: exploring inside Newt's suitcase and being able to see the magical wonder of it through Jacob's eyes (and later Tina's).

And Colin Farrell as Graves was awesome! I tried to avoid spoilers for the movie, but did manage to get spoiled that he was actually Grindlewald, but I still loved him. He was intense and mysterious and menacing, and in the scenes with Credence, kind of seductive in a dirtybadwrong way. Which reminds me, Ezra Miller (Credence) was great too, and I remember that I also loved him in Perks of Being a Wallflower (which ironically featured Emma Watson). I've heard that Credence is supposed to be in the next movie, so I'm really interested in seeing how his character will develop, and whether he'll be an ally or enemy to Newt.

Colin Farrell was so great that I feel kind of meh about him turning into Johnny Depp at the end, although Depp used to be one of my favorite actors. But it's kind of hard to see Depp the same way after the domestic abuse allegations came out. I don't think Farrell is contracted for the sequels, but I like to wistfully imagine that Grindlewald had the real Graves imprisoned somewhere and that he could come back. I guess that's what fanfic is for!

Anyway, overall a good movie though it had some flaws. I don't regret buying the dvd and I look forward to the next movie, if maybe with not quite as much eagerness as I did the original HP series.