Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

2016 • 132 minutes

About this movie

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” opens in 1926 as Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident…were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.

Ratings and reviews

The story was not at all about the animals (who were a side show). Bad casting and in the end boring. The thin references to Harry Potter storylines were badly thought out. No spoiler but come on....if you mention the name of serious Harry Potter characters you need to explain it more in this movie vs. the classic and now tired Hollywood strategy of "setting up the next film." How about making this one great...should have kept the focus on that vs. thinking ahead too much.

It was boring 15 mins in. It had too many plot holes. The acting was asinine to say the least. I actually preferred to watch regular network tv after 30 mins of this ridiculous presentation. Effects wise, it was pretty decent. But the special effects could not salvage the movie's from its slow delivery, dull and witless acting and ridiculous situations in the movie. It was totally not captivating. I felt sorry for the movie, or ashamed for it.... I never have felt ashamed for a movie before. All this coming from a die- hard potter fan..... I was one of the people who queued overnight to get the books and watch the films. This is ridiculous. Its quite annoying actually. I found myself very irritated nearly throughout the insipid presentation. $4.99 was too much to pay to rent it. Thank goodness, I didn't see it on the big screen... I would have been enraged by it's catatonic pace.

I found this one to be confusing, conflicting, jumbled, hard to fathom and basically, not a very good movie. I didn't like any of the Harry Potter series so that probably has a lot to do with it. I bought this one for my daughter who does like the HP universe so she seemed to like it more. If you haven't watched the entire HP series and know all the mumbo jumbo involved, skip this one. It's a waste of your time and money.