Throwback Review: "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" Review - (Non-Spoiler)
Before I go ahead with this review, I just want to say that this film isn't going to be for everyone. You'll either love this or hate this. For me, this is one of the best blockbusters of the year 2016 when it came out.
Being a massive Potterhead, I had been anticipating Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them ever since it was announced that JK Rowling wanted to make a movie based on Newt Scamander, author of the textbook of the same name. The trailers didn't do much for me and left me feeling quite disappointed. But after seeing it, this blew my expectations and is actually in my top 5 Harry Potter (Wizarding World) movies.
The screenplay written by JK Rowling is great, and I really enjoyed this story. Eddie Redmayne is excellent as Newt Scamander, Dan Fogler was also surprisingly fantastic as the muggle (or no-maj) Jacob. I liked pretty much every performance in this, everyone did a great job. Also, the beasts really were fantastic, and cute as hell.
The score by James Newton Howard was amazing, and the score really accompanied some scenes in the film. I'll probably be listening to the score for the next few weeks or so on repeat.
Now whilst I did thoroughly enjoy this movie, there are acknowledgeable flaws. The physical props they used in the film were really cool and when I go back to the Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio in London either next year or in 2018, I hope to see the props there. But the CGI in this just wasn't the greatest and was overused quite a lot. Also, there are some scenes where the dialogue just seems to go on for forever and it was just unnecessary.
So apart from those flaws, I really had a great time with Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. I can't wait to see more of this era of magic and the journeys that JK Rowling and David Yates take us on. I'm going to give "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" a 7 out of 10.