Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) * * *

Directed by:  David Yates

Starring:  Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Jon Voight, Colin Farrell, Carmen Ejogo, Alison Sudol, Samantha Morton, Ezra Miller

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them promises fantastic beasts and delivers.     The visuals and production values, not to mention the mostly likable beasts and characters, are enough to cover up a weak story.     Based on the series of novels by J.K. Rowling, Fantastic Beasts is a prequel of sorts to the Harry Potter series and takes place roughly 75 years before Harry Potter ever set foot in Hogwarts.

I confess I stopped watching Harry Potter after the third film.     I grew weary of the whole thing and I have no regrets about missing the final four or five films.    Harry Potter just wasn't for me.    Fantastic Beasts may not be for me in the long run either, since more films are promised, but I can say I was intrigued enough after all was said and done to be curious about the sequel.     Fantastic Beasts follows the adventures of recent Hogwarts grad Newt Scamander (Redmayne), who travels to New York circa 1926 to capture some beasts who fled his supernatural zoo.    Newt is better at dealing with beasts than other wizards and non-wizards.    He is rather shy, but befriends an investigator named Tina (Waterston) at Magical Congress of the United States of America (or MACUSA for short) and an ordinary schlubby guy named Jacob (Fogler), who has more contact with this world of beasts, magic, and wizardry than he would like.     Newt wants to track down his lost beasts before they are killed by frightened wizards and the public at large, whom Newt feels misunderstands his beasts.    However, there is also a force which is destroying cities and wreaking havoc, and Newt and his friends are drawn into this intrigue also.   

It is the opinion of MACUSA security chief Graves (Farrell) that a beast is causing all of the destruction, but this belief is met with skepticism by Newt and others.    There is also the mention of an evil wizard named Grindelwald, who has gone into hiding after causing worldwide chaos.    These are just the basics of the plot.    Describing any more will spoil some surprises and is a fool's errand anyway.    I can't say that I'm even sure exactly how everything tied together.     Fantastic Beasts seems more for those who read the book and is intimately familiar with Rowling's worlds.     I admit I am not among the enlightened.     I understand the basics, but that's about it, but I'm really sure I could pass a test on those basics either.

The beasts are truly a marvel to behold.    Star Wars isn't the only movie franchise that can show us inventive creatures.    The ones in Fantastic Beasts have personalities all their own, including one that looks like a platypus and has an insatiable love for coins and jewelry.    The themes of fear and unfair persecution of present, which I couldn't help but feel allude to present day political events and act as a call for tolerance during troubled times even though it would be easy to abandon it.     Redmayne has the shy guy act down pat, yet we see other dimensions through his interactions with his beasts.    I especially enjoyed Fogler as the guy who just wanted to get a loan to open his own bakery and escape the soul-crushing employment of a canning factory.    But, he is pulled into this world he doesn't fully understand (how many of us would?) and acts as a surrogate for the audience.    He also falls for the fetching mind-reader Queenie (Sudol), who is Tina's sister and takes a genuine liking to the lug.  

There are lot of loose ends in the story which maybe later films will tie up.    Fantastic Beasts is an introduction to this story and we know there will be more to follow.     It is perhaps the movie's strength that, despite my own misgivings, I found myself caring enough to want to see more.