Reviews & Ratings for
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

Written and produced by J.K Rowling herself and directed by franchise regular David yates, Fantastic beasts and where to find them is the story of newt Scamander before he became the famous author whose books on magical creatures is a staple of Hogwarts.
On the outset, this movie seems rather needless. It’s a prequel to Harry Potter and is set in New York City in 1926. Interesting as the premise is, the plot from the trailers seemed boring. So I was apprehensive about this film. It seems my fears were not founded. This movie is pretty good and a solid entry into the magical world of Potter.
Since its written by the original author, this film has all the hall marks of a Harry Potter film,
A Young and misunderstood wizard – Check
His rather useless but funny sidekick – Check
A strong, smart and serious young lady who quotes rules all the time – Check
A Dark and powerful wizard hell bent on taking over the wizarding world – Double Check!
In some ways, in lots of ways, this feel like a sequel to harry potter if you imagine harry as newt and Hermione as the Tina, everything else falls into place. Miss Rowling hasn’t strayed too far from the formula of a dynamic trio vs magical forces.
For Potter fans this film has a lot of magic, new places, new concept… lots to occupy the eye and mind both. I am not discussing the plot as its more of a spoiler, but I felt the first half of the film was a bit meandering and took its time to come to the topic and I was a bit bored for the first 45 mins or so, despite the charm of old New York and all the new magical items and people.
But the second half speeds up and is crackling and pretty much makes up for the slower start.

As an actor, I really can’t stand Eddie Redmayne and I liked the movie despite him. I found myself missing Daniel Radcliffe at times. Dan fogler is pretty decent as Jacob the no-mag (muggles as they are called in America).
The effects in this film range from hokey to amazing and wonderful, the climax looks very CGI fest, but then the resolution to the climax was simply magical.

So in short, Potter fans won’t be disappointed. This film sets up its own 1920’s world, with lots of things kept for the sequel, yet the film itself doesn’t feel incomplete. In that J.K Rowling succeeds exceedingly well.

Rating 7.5/10. It’s well-crafted, quite magical, if a bit slow at times.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a gift to all those potterheads who have suffered the curse of finding the books better than the movies (literally all potterheads). We can, for once, watch this movie without thinking about what they did wrong or which scene they cut out. It has a gripping plot and an ending that will leave you wanting more. You will end up being in love with Newt Scamander and all his quirks (he has many). True potterheads, who're always itching for more from the wizarding world will find this more than satisfactory.

3.5/5 #cgi #entertaining #visualTreat
To be honest, I set my expectations low after watching the trailer and an average title name but the movie surpassed my expectations. It is definitely a treat for Potterfans. The movie is capable of keeping the audience into its magical world and successfully build the plot for its future installments. Harry Potter series is more of a #guiltyPleasure to me and I liked this one too.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a film directed by David Yates. I had watched some of the Harry Potter films years ago. Then I came to know about this particular film which was a prequel to the Harry Potter Films. Seeing the craze of the Harry Potter series in many people, I decided to give this film a try. And I enjoyed it.

Plot: Newt Scamander arrives in New York when some of his creatures escape from his suitcase and it is upto him and his allies to save the day.

Story and direction: This is J K Rowling's first film as a screenwriter and I can say she has done a wonderful job in creating a world where both magicians and normal citizens live together. Hats off to David Yates and team, for creating a world for creating a world I so want to be in. The creature designs were fantastic and that goes on to say how talented the crew is. The characters for this story were so mesmerizing. Each of these characters had something to be liked. The comedy also was so good and never felt forced or out of place. The action scenes were so nicely done. The production design and costumes transported me back to the 1920's. But the film, was not all perfect. The film's first 20-30 minutes, felt little flat for me. But that was understandable, as I was getting to know this world and it was a slow-buildup movie. Also the editing and VFX in certain portions of the film felt little haywire.

Performances: Eddie Redmayne was very lovable as Newt. The little chacacters nuances were perfectly performed by him. Katherine Waterston also provided some great support to Newt's character. Dan Fogler was the comic relief and he was impressive. Allison Sudol was good too. Ezra Miller was awesome. You could feel the pain his characater was going through. Colin Farrell was great. And for those who haven't seen this film, I would say just wait for Johnny Depp. Yes, he is there in the film. But I won't go any further.

Favorite Scene: Again no spoilers but there is a scene involving, Newt, Tina, Queenie and Jacob towards the climax that was heart-touching. I also teared up for a bit.

Verdict: I had a fun time watching this film. For a person who has not been updated with the Harry Potter series, I fully understood the film. And was quite happy that the film didn't rely on Harry Potter. It's good on its own.

I am going with an 8/10.

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them is an amazing start to an exciting franchise penned by the genius writer J.K Rowling.This movie revolves around Newt Scamander played by Eddie Redmanye who arrives in New York with his mysterious suitcase at a turbulent time when the wizard community in NY is trying to hide their magical identities from the No-Majs or muggles.Eddie is the perfect fit to play the British nerdy wizard who is fascinated with the 'so called dangerous beasts'.We are introduced to the Magical Congress of USA and one has to admit the MCUSA setup is lot more cooler than that of Britain.
Even though the movie is set up 70 years before Harry potter's birth,it is exciting to see references of Dumbledore and Grindalwald which gets us nostalgic about the classic hp franchise.Although we get a glimpse of Johnny Depp playing Grindalwald towards the end,
the references to Dumbledore and Grindalwald sets the stage for their appearances in the subsequent course of this franchise.
The movie slows down a little bit in the beginning but gains pace steadily after that.
The movie is visually overwhelming with its adventurous story and the upbeat screenplay and the chemistry between the lead characters makes this movie an thoroughly enjoyable experience.

This movie gives you great vibes and visual pleasure since you we hadn't seen any of the characters much on the screen before which injects the much needed freshness to the screenplay. The movie was unpredictable and had exciting surprises throughout. The cast too fell on point and each character justified their role to the fullest. The Beasts were deceptively adorable, and came to life in 3D. (Niffler being the no:1 favourite).
It's fantastic as a standalone film, with the right quantities of tense and also mildly dark with intriguing new characters and creatures.