Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) – Encore Review

“She was a taker… You need a giver. ” – Queenie

Number of Times Seen – Twice (15 Jan 2017 and 16 May 2022)

Link to original review – Here

Brief Synopsis – Newt Scamander arrives in New York in the 1920’s and gets involved in a conspiracy by a powerful wizard to destroy the Muggle world.

My Take on it – As a fan of the Harry Potter series (books mostly), I was quite excited when this film originally came out because it could dive back in to that amazing world of wizardry from a whole new perspective.

When the third film in the series came out, I decided to rewatch the previous two installments in order to get a refresher on the story before moving forward.

I was so glad that I did this because it allowed me to once again immerse myself in this descriptive world that supposedly runs in parallel to our own world.

The new characters that we are introduced to are so likable and fun to watch and I loved how they are so careful to make it all seem so original without much need to use what we already know from the Harry Potter series to be used as a crutch.

The special effects are great here and the fact that one of the main characters is a human helps bridge the gap between these two worlds.

Love how the story is both self-contained and open to expansion and that works so well especially when watching all 3 films back to back to back.

Eddie Redmayne is superbly cast as Newt and help keep the story moving at a great level throughout.

Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Eddie Redmayne has admitted that he didn’t do well at the audition for the role of Kylo Ren in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015), and this freed him up for the role of Newt, although he was not aware that he was the studio’s only choice for the latter. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (8/10) (no change from original review)