Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) has been forced into hiding. Magical authorities around the world are on the lookout for him to bring him to justice, but to no avail.
Meanwhile, a dark and sinister force is terrorizing New York City. It is into this environment that a young magizoologist named Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) enters.
Scamander is writing a book about the care and proper treatment of magical creatures. (Astute Harry Potter fans will recall that Scamander’s book was actually one of the books on the first-year syllabus at Hogwarts. In fact, J. K. Rowling actually later wrote this book too to raise funds for Comic Relief UK). With him, he carries an enchanted briefcase that houses many of these creatures, creatures that MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America, the American equivalent of the Ministry of Magic) have deemed dangerous and illegal.
After an altercation with No-Maj (American English for Muggle) Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), Scamander finds himself being pursued by former Auror Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston). Escaping the clutches of MACUSA and Auror Graves (Colin Farrell), Scamander and Jacob take shelter with Tina and her sister Queenie (Alison Sudol).
When several of Scamander’s magical creatures escape the briefcase and are let loose on the streets of New York, the group must find them and get them back into the case before MACUSA find them and kill them.
At the same time, a group that call themselves Second Salem, headed by a fanatic named Mary Lou (Samantha Morton), are trying to hunt down and kill witches and wizards. Mary Lou and her many adopted children, including Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller) and his young sister Modesty (Faith Wood-Blagrove) hand out leaflets to people on the street, and hold protest rallies in public, calling for an end to the magical population, whom they believe are responsible for all the recent unexplained events terrorizing the city.
I really can’t say any more about the plot, as there are so many twists and turns, it wouldn’t be fair to you for me to continue.
Fans of the Harry Potter films will find much to love about this film, as it has a very similar feel and tone to it. This is mainly due to the sheer number of people who worked on the Potter films who have returned to work on this one.
Director David Yates (who directed several of the later Harry Potter films) returns to the helm, and has made a film that is so close to the Potter films and indeed the wider wizarding world, it just feels right. The screenplay is written by J. K. Rowling herself, rather than being adapted from a book. This is an original screenplay, and as such, means that watching this film for the first time, everything comes as a surprise, as only Rowling knows what’s yet to come (this is said to be the first of five films).
Production designer Stuart Craig also returns, and again, has done a fantastic job. The sets and locations are all incredibly detailed, and it really feels as though we are back in 1920s New York, rather than on a studio lot.
Of course, the hard work of costume designer Colleen Atwood also adds to this overall effect. The costumes are beautiful, while not being over-the-top and ridiculous. Every last detail has been thought of here, and it pays off immensely.
The score (by James Newton Howard) is also perfect for the film. As the film opens, we hear the Potter theme (as composed by John Williams) for only a few seconds, before the music transitions to a new theme, highlighting the fact that we are in the same wizarding world, but we are here for a whole new adventure that has little to do with the earlier films.
Performances by the entire cast are well executed, with Eddie Redmayne and Dan Fogler certainly being the standouts. I for one can’t wait to see where these characters end up in the upcoming installments, at least, the ones who are still with us at the end of the film (not saying too much, no spoilers here!).
Wait … I almost forgot to mention the visual effects. The effects in this film (and naturally, there are an awful lot of them) are absolutely seamless, which of course only serves to ground us even more in this magical universe.
All in all, this is a fantastic film (no pun intended), and I am sure I will be watching it many more times (mainly to ease the wait for the next four films!).
8 1/2 out of 10.
No comments:
Post a Comment