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Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them


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Old 18-11-2016, 18:20
Dandem
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Watched Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them Today. I feel like if you're a fan of the Harry Potter universe (as I am), you'll really enjoy this. If not, this won't do anything to convince you otherwise. Eddie Redmayne puts in a wonderfully charming performance as the lead character, and the narrative was well paced and interesting. Although the plot twist at the end was really dumb.

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Old 18-11-2016, 21:46
ASIFZED
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Saw this earlier today...

I guess if you liked the Harry Potter books/films, then you'll most probably like this. I'd gone off the last few HP movies, so it was with some trepidation that I watched this, but as I've a Cineworld card...

I think this may not play as well with the younger audience, as it's mostly adult fare. Yes, there are some fantastic beasties and cutesy goings on (the mole-like thing), but there are long stretches of dialogue and plot exposition / world building that might make the kiddies a bit restless. But you're never too far away from another piece of wizardry or action.

The highlights for me included the 1920s New York setting. It really did look fantastic on screen, though a bit dark occasionally. In terms of performances, Jacob Kowalski (the No Maj), stole the show as the audience's eyes to all the magic stuff. I really thought Eddie Redmayne was poor; he mumbled a lot throughout and subtitles wouldn't have gone amiss. He just felt quite lightweight in the lead role. In fact, just as lightweight as Daniel Radcliffe was throughout the HP films. Hopefully, Redmayne will improve in future movies. The best female performance was Queenie(?), the sister of the MACUSA agent and the budding romance that ensues.

The plot was fine for an introductory film, with Newt stumbling into a a series of strange happenings afflicting New York and coming to the rescue. At the same time, we get an insight into his skills with magical animals etc. The CGI critters are well rendered, with some really outlandish designs. Colin Farrell and Ezra Miller did the heavy lifting on the darker elements of the plot, and these parts are as serious as the film gets. There are clear echoes of earlier HP films, with wizards hiding their presence from normal folk. But on the whole, the film was fairly well paced, though the ending did turn into yet another CGI cloud-fest (and has shades of the end of Doctor Strange..). There is however, one distasteful appearance towards the end...

I think 5 films will be stretching it, but clearly WB will raking it in with a built-in fan base. But I think this could reach a wider audience, who may have been put off by the denseness of the HP stories and subsequent films and the chance to start afresh.

That's my 2 cents worth. A 7/10 from me, for a fairly entertaining addition to the Potter-verse.
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Old 19-11-2016, 09:33
claire2281
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Saw it yesterday and utterly loved it. It made a better film than many of the Potter ones because it was written as a film and not a stripped down book. Redmayne is endearing, charming and interesting as Newt - there's obviously much more about him we don't know. I love his friendship with Jacob and there were some genuinely very touching moments. Not so enamoured by Tina who was a bit of an uneven character and I'm not sure where they were trying to pitch her (focused career girl or a bit girlie and awkward? It was a bit of mishmash at times).

The visuals were unsurprisingly stunning and the creatures were wonderful. It was easy to feel for them and want them safe (particularly the Niffler and Picket).

The plot of the film (outside of the beasts) is unsettling and on point with current events. There's a definite darkness underpinning it all. I can see where it's going in the future and it's going to have a clear message about the danger of divisions. Definitely looking forward to seeing how that develops.

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Old 19-11-2016, 18:51
Whedonite
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I've just seen it and I really enjoyed it. Funnily enough, I've never really been a Potter fan, but my best friend is and she didn't really enjoy the film.

I heard a bunch of people behind me clap when it finished. I guess it was either loved, or they were thrilled it was done.
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Old 19-11-2016, 22:43
MysteriousOz
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Saw it today

OMG was bored for the first half

Made up for it in the last hour but mostly we (3 of us) hated it

felt like a rubbish attempt to cash in on HP

note.... the other 2 people i was with fell asleep and they were the ones who wanted to see it
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Old 20-11-2016, 00:18
boddism
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Seen it.

Underwhelmed.

It has little of the charm of the Harry Potter series.

It has good CGI, a few good acting performances, but little else to offer.
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Old 20-11-2016, 02:48
Menime123
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I thought it was wonderful, and some really clever links to the Harry Potter story we know and love. I like that the story had room to breathe - unlike the book adaptations of Harry Potter.

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Old 20-11-2016, 10:47
Tyyleer
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I'm gonna pass on this for now. I'll probably buy it when it comes out on DVD though.
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Old 20-11-2016, 15:33
eggchen
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Just come back from seeing this with my ten year old. A bit too long, and Eddie Redmayne's shy/goofy/awkward schtick is beginning to get irritating.
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Old 20-11-2016, 17:42
Motthus
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First I must make the point that I'm not a fan of the Harry Potter films but I've seen them so I know the world.

I did really enjoy Fantastic Beasts as it's great fun film which showed a lot more of that world.

Eddie Redmayne was good in the lead as well as the rest of the cast especially Jacob.The villain I did feel was obvious sign posted but that didn't spoil the film for me!

The fact it was more adult may have been the reason it appealed to me more than Potter!

8/10
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Old 20-11-2016, 18:52
bbclassics
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I enjoyed this, was a bit long though
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Old 20-11-2016, 22:05
Calvin93
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Saw this today and loved it. The special effects were incredible.
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Old 21-11-2016, 10:56
Abomination
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Saw this on Saturday night and despite all of my low expectations I really, really enjoyed it. The promotional material for it - the trailers and the posters - looked typical CG-fest, whilst having David Yates on board was another bad sign, as I really disliked the direction he took the Harry Potter films in for the most part.

This though, I think he pitched it right. The opening of the film says it all... a very familiar tune plays up to nostalgia before kicking off a brilliant new score, and then a montage of newspapers filling us in on the wheres and whens of the story - it's rather Order of the Phoenix in that sense (probably my least favourite Potter film admittedly) but then this story is very much set in the same sort of angsty period of world events so it was good to see the parallels.

The main characters didn't have the book development granted to the Potter films, but did well enough on their own. Eddie Redmayne didn't get anything particularly amazing to do, but he leads a strong cast. The character of Jacob was where the heart of the film was - it harked back to those earlier Potter films with him, and a real sense of wonder at the magical world (whereas I felt the later films treated Hogwarts like nothing more than a glorified boarding school). The film generally pulls that off well... having a lot of fun, but also having some dark undertones that surpass that of the Potter films (it's 1920's New York... dark undertones is to be expected).

In spite of minimal interest, I'll admit I really enjoyed this. It dragged in a couple of places for a short time, and there were some CG moments that you feel would have been better with actors in make-up, but both of these are minor faults in a film that's earned a sequel. Whether it's earned four remains to be seen.
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Old 21-11-2016, 22:42
pubey
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Here's a few comments

I really liked the main plot and the setting and the 'team' worked really well. I think Rowling is at her best building relationships and plots, and that showed in the film.

I also really liked the way they built the 'wizard world'. loved the idea of wizard war heroes and their uneasy relationship with non maj etc.

Eddie Redmayne was clearly made for this world. Consistently the acting was superb. It's a shame Ezra Miller is so typecast because he's just fantastic in that role.

Also it's clearly leading to the Grindlewald/Dumbledore duel which is great.

The downside is how the series is going to get there. Is it going to follow Grindlwald or Newt? Does Newt have enough going on? Also there's only so many times we can rely on a JK deus ex machina. No more magic beast who happen to have some ability to save the day.
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Old 22-11-2016, 00:10
Motthus
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I think in a recent news on DS it said that Newt,Tina,Queenie and Jacob would be part of the sequel but not a main part.

It also said that as expected Dumbledore,Credence and Grindelwald would have a more major part of the second film.

Also that it would be set in the UK and Paris but that's all I've seen so far!
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Old 22-11-2016, 14:40
dave2702
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This though, I think he pitched it right. The opening of the film says it all... a very familiar tune plays up to nostalgia before kicking off a brilliant new score, and then a montage of newspapers filling us in on the wheres and whens of the story - it's rather Order of the Phoenix in that sense (probably my least favourite Potter film admittedly) but then this story is very much set in the same sort of angsty period of world events so it was good to see the parallels.
I'm looking forward to the DVD release to take a closer look at some of those articles
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Old 22-11-2016, 14:54
retrodj
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Saw it last Friday. For me it was good but not great. I thought harry potter was understated and slowly built up over the films.. with this they've went over the top with all the pizazz straight away... where as potter was the subtle majestic juggernaut, fantastic beasts is it's big brash American cousin.
Maybe after a few years and further watching I might grow to like em as it took me a wee while before I got into the potter series of films.. I wasn't amazed but I think die hard potter fans will enjoy it.
The period setting was really well done as were the special effects. Redmayne's Newt was a bit, 'meh.
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Old 23-11-2016, 10:25
Wizard_of_Ozil
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A mixed bag as I thought it would be. Though I wasn't expecting the cinematography to be this muted. A lot of people complained about HBP and the Hallows films of their murky visuals and I always David Yates for his choices as it was neat to match the gathering clouds of the narrative in the final chapters of the Potter films. The dark cinematography in Fantastic Beasts was just too much and in fact, inappropriate for a story that isn't apocalyptic. The colourful beasts in the film suffer for this.

For me the film got going half way through when the narrative picked up. I would've enjoyed the chasing around NYC if I could actually the beasts. My favourite element of the film was the relationship between the muggle and Queen, that was lovely. Yates has always been at his best with the character stuff. Very muddled pacing though, Rowling isn't infallible and this being her first screenwriting credit shows. Gah, I hate being so mixed on a film. I'll be picking up the blu-ray of course like I did with The Hobbit films since I'm that kind of person
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Old 23-11-2016, 23:06
cnbcwatcher
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Saw this on Sunday night and I really enjoyed it. It wasn't as long as I thought it was going to be and it was a different take on the wizarding world. It's more adult than the HP series and not really suitable for children. I went to a 9pm screening and it was quite full and there were no kids there.
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Old 24-11-2016, 08:29
TheAngryGerman
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Saw it yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Eddie Redmayne portrays Newt as a lovable outsider who is socially awkward when dealing with humans but comes to life when dealing with his creatures.
Of the other characters I enjoyed Queenie and Jacob a lot, whereas Tina remains a little bland in comparison.
The creatures are all indeed "fantastic" and the Niffler in particular steals the show.

As pointed out before this is a much more mature themed film aimed at people who grew up with Harry Potter rather than going for a completely new (younger) audience. Which I very much welcome and see as a definite plus.

One slight negative would be that the film seems to follow 2 different plot lines, one really dark and serious one more lighthearted and fun, those two tones don't mix particularly well here.
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Old 25-11-2016, 14:00
fefster
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I am a massive fan of HP, and I hated this. Redmayne was awful. He completely lacked charm and I honestly did not care about his character.
The plot was wafer thin, and the relationships under-developed.
Dreadful.
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Old 25-11-2016, 14:14
haphash
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Eddie Redmayne portrays Newt as a lovable outsider who is socially awkward when dealing with humans but comes to life when dealing with his creatures.
Of the other characters I enjoyed Queenie and Jacob a lot, whereas Tina remains a little bland in comparison.
The creatures are all indeed "fantastic" and the Niffler in particular steals the show.

As pointed out before this is a much more mature themed film aimed at people who grew up with Harry Potter rather than going for a completely new (younger) audience. Which I very much welcome and see as a definite plus.

One slight negative would be that the film seems to follow 2 different plot lines, one really dark and serious one more lighthearted and fun, those two tones don't mix particularly well here.
I saw it yesterday and agree with what you say. Tina was the hardest to warm to out of the main characters. My daughter didn't think it was anywhere near as good as HP but I thought it was a better film than the Half Blood Prince.

The creatures were certainly the best part of it along with Jacob discovering the magical world.

Can't imagine how they are going to get 5 movies out of this.
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Old 25-11-2016, 15:22
TheAngryGerman
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Can't imagine how they are going to get 5 movies out of this.
If the information so far is to be believed it will follow the darker story line with Grindlwald and less Newt Scamander who will become more of a side character (and presumably a young Dumbledore will become more prominent).
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Old 25-11-2016, 21:23
performingmonk
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They have the chance to finally cast exactly the right person to play Albus Dumbledore! neither Richard Harris or Michael Gambon were totally right for it. John Hurt would have been much closer to the mark, though maybe he had played too many similar roles so wouldn't take it on (if they even asked him...)

However, this time they have a chance to set things right!! the actor they cast will be 40-50, something like that, for it to work (now they have cast Johnny Depp as Grindelwald, Dumbledore needs to be played by someone a similar age )
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Old 26-11-2016, 09:17
TheAngryGerman
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Jonny Depp is so so wrong for Grindlwald.
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