Fantastic way to kick off

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a whole new experience for Harry Potter fans all over the world.

For the first time in the franchise’s history, even the keenest fanatics will walk into cinemas with no solid guidelines of what will transpire on screen and are instead offered an opportunity to delve further into the intricate web Rowling’s brilliant mind has spun.

Fantastic Beasts follows the diffident and awkwardly charming magizoologist Newt Scamander, perfectly portrayed by the exceptional Eddie Redmayne, on his travels to 1920s New York to study new magical creatures.

Carrying a menagerie of mysterious magical creatures in his suitcase, Newt’s struggle to keep them contained entwines his story with Jacob Kowalski, a loveable ‘no-maj’ (or muggle), the perturbed Macusa (Magical Congress of the USA) employee Tina Goldstein and her bewitching sister Queenie.

At a time when the original dark wizard, Gellert Grindelwald, is reigning terror on the wizarding community, dark forces are at work in the city- but is it a beast or something more sinister?

Fantastic Beasts unapologetically dives into dark, confronting scenes and grapples with lessons of tolerance while providing political commentary concurrent with real world issues.

While the visuals are truly fantastical, it is at some points detrimental to the plot which seems to stall in places.

Overall, Fantastic Beasts is an absolute joy to watch, creating an exciting beginning to a five-part saga full of endless potential.

Movie Review

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Rated: M

Review: Emily Ace

Rating: 7.5/10