Newt Scamander brings back the magic

TITLE: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

DIRECTOR: David Yates

CAST: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Colin Farrell

RUNNING TIME: 133 minutes

RATING: ★★★★★

The film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, finally brought the magic back to life.

We are transported back in time and across an ocean to 1930s New York, to a city plagued by an unknown force, wrecking apparently random havoc on No-Maj’s (Muggles in the United States of America) and wizard alike, and Macusa (Magical Congress of the United States) attempting to contain the chaos without contravening the International Statute of Secrecy.

There are further two distinct threats growing in the background, one being the rise of the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, and the other is the fundamentalist hate group, the Second Salemers, who voice severe anti-wizard opinions through their leader, Mary Lou Barebone (Samantha Morton).

With her adopted children, Credence (Ezra Miller), Modesty (Faith Wood-Blagrove) and Chastity (Jenn Murray), she spreads a hateful message toward magic folk and how they need to be exterminated.

Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), kicked out of Hogwarts and fresh from a stint in the wilds of some foreign country, enters New York in search of an Appaloosa Pigmy Puff, with his magical case full of fantastic beasts by his side.

In a comedy of errors involving an aspiring No-Maj baker, Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), a rogue Niffler, a hatching Occamy egg and a bank vault, Newt and his case attract the attention of ex-auror and Macusa employee Porpentina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston).

In the fracas they inadvertently switch suitcases and Jacob disappears with Newt’s case as Newt is arrested by Porpentina and taken to Macusa headquarters.

Only when Newt and Tina reach the office of the Auror Perciaval Graves (Colin Farrell) do they realise the cases are switched and set off to retrieve the correct case and all the magical creatures within.

Obviously the case has been opened, and many of the creatures it contained have escaped into the city, including a Murtlap that has bitten Jacob.

The bite means he needs to be supervised before his memory can be altered, and they set off to find the creatures.

A humorous interaction with an Erumpent and the continued search for the cunning little Niffler bring them closer to the unnamed darkness terrorising the city.

You realise that Auror Graves might not be all that he seems to be, and we are introduced to the dark entity of an Obscurus, an uncontrollable force of pure magic that is the result of a young witch or wizard’s attempts to suppress their magic to avoid persecution or torment. (Anyone else reminded of Ariana Dumbledore?)

It becomes clear that it is just such an Obscurus that is the cause of the deaths in New York, and although Obscurials usually don’t survive past the age of 10 years old, it is revealed that Credence, and not his younger sister, was the Obscurial.

Auror Graves, Newt and Tina end up trapped in an underground station with Credence the Obscurial, and although Newt and Tina try to speak to him and tell him that Newt will be able to help him, other Aurors from Macusa destroy the Obscurus, killing Credence in the process.

In an unexpected plot twist Newt uses the Revelio charm and we come face to face with Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) who had hoped to harness the destructive power of the Obscurial. Wonder where he got that idea…

This film opens up a whole new world, filled with the back stories of all our favourite characters.

When it comes to the story line, plot twists, characters, dialogue, wardrobe, sets, special effects and over all look and feel of this exceptional film, the production team and actors can confidently say: “Mischief managed.”