Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Directed by David Yates, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them follows Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) as he arrives in New York City and soon makes a series of discoveries about its secret community of witches and wizards. Filmmaker Yates, working from J. K. Rowling’s screenplay, delivers a mostly ineffective blockbuster that’s rarely, if ever, able to capture the magic and wonder of the comparatively stellar Harry Potter series, as the movie, saddled with an overlong and aggressively padded-out running time, suffers from a meandering, episodic narrative that essentially jumps from one tedious and hopelessly uninvolving set-piece to the next with little thought towards forward momentum – which, in turn, paves the way for a hit-and-miss midsection that’s generally more miss than hit. The picture’s arms-length atmosphere is compounded by an unexpected paucity of compelling, sympathetic protagonists, as Redmayne turns in a mannered and mostly off-putting performance that ensures his character remains entirely unable to become the charismatic hero one might’ve anticipated. (The total lack of chemistry between Redmayne and bland costars Katherine Waterston and Dan Fogler doesn’t help matters, certainly.) By the time the endless, special-effects-heavy final stretch rolls around, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has undoubtedly cemented its place as a predominantly worthless endeavor that seems to serve no purpose other than to lay the groundwork for future installments.

*1/2 out of ****