Film Review: 'Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them'

This semester at uni, I have taken on more outside of my studies. I've joined the swimming club, started writing for the student newspaper, taken on more work as a student ambassador and mentor, and started a part time job. I've always loved being busy, so in many respects I've thrived on adding these things to my weekly routine. However, the extra time commitments on top of the increased pressure of second year can sometimes take its toll, and while I do my best to stay positive and manage my time effectively, often the weekend comes and goes and I feel like I've achieved very little.

I was talking to my friends about this and I figured that there are lots of things we are supposed to do at weekends: sleep, eat, study, work, socialise, exercise and chill, to name but a few. And that it is absolutely impossible to do all of those things in 2 days!! Some of those things always slip, whether its not eating proper meals, not getting enough study done, not seeing my friends, or not getting any sleep!

Now, as much as I enjoy my job and my subjects, for the last few weeks, weekends haven't really been feeling like weekends. I mean, I try and work as hard as I can throughout the week and I need to remember to have some time just to do things outside of uni! I was therefore really looking forward to Sunday afternoon with 2 of my friends, because we had arranged to go and se the new JK Rowling film Fantastic Beasts at the local cinema!

Now, I haven't done a film review in a wee while, mostly because I hardly ever go to the cinema but also because films I lazily watch on Netflix sometimes don't go into my brain enough to regurgitate in blog form! But this was one of those special ones I had to log.

I was definitely one of the millions of children whose childhood wouldn't have been anywhere near the same without JK Rowling's Harry Potter books and films. My mum read every single one to us and sitting down as a family to listen to those ingenious tales was one of the many things that contributed to my total adoration of literature. We could only ever watch the film for the first time after we had finished the book, and so the anticipation of the new instalment coming out in the cinema or on DVD was always so exciting!

I haven't actually read 'Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them'. We have a copy in the house somewhere, but I never got round to it. I think a part of me felt as though the world of Harry Potter had to end, and feared that trying to re-enter it would ruin the magic. Therefore, I really had no idea what to expect when I showed up at the cinema on Sunday... I was both excited and a little apprehensive.

Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. The recognisable phrases, names and spells gave a familiarity to the film from the outset, and yet the story was entirely different. Set in the 1920s, long before the occurrence of Harry Potter's birth or encounter with Voldermort, the characters we know so well weren't even mentioned. But what I loved was that this film made the magical world even more real, because it set a context for its existence outwith the confines of the Harry Potter stories. In fact, the setting couldn't have been much different.... when the opening scenes made it clear that the film would be set in America, I was worried that it wouldn't be authentic, but if anything it was more so as it gave us an insight of the global scale of the magical world.

I won't give the story away. But I'll give a few wee antidotes of my favourite stylistic elements. I am the first to admit that I am not the biggest fan of CGI in films. While I can appreciate the wonderful artistry behind it, animation doesn't usually engage me in the same way as real life. And yet, I have never had an issue with Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts was no different. The creatures felt real; they were beautiful and contrasted wonderfully with the actors and ordinary settings. The balance was magical: emotional but no soppy, romantic but not cliché. And I love that Rowling always has an element of morality in her work, but so subtle, not like a lecture. The pace was just right- I never felt bored or as though the storyline was dragging, and I loved the balance of dark storyline with humour and joy. One of the key elements of the plot (child witches/wizards unable to control their power) reminded me a wee bit of Meyer's child vampires in  the Twilight Saga.

Finally, the casting and acting was fantastic. All of the performances were pretty strong, particularly the leads. I really liked Eddie Redmayne as Newt (he has had an exceptional couple of years in the film world!) and was really drawn in by the lead female character Tina, played by Katherine Waterston. A quick search on IMDB tells me she has been in a fair amount, but I hadn't seen her in anything before and thought her performance was pretty perfect. I won't say much more, but I must say there was some excellent chemistry between characters, and there was one occasion when I wanted to shout out in the middle of the silent cinema: "KISS HER!"

I haven't decided if I'm going to go away and read the book, as much I'd like to, for the simple reason that this was the first of a trilogy, with another 2 films to come out of just the one book. I want to be equally as surprised and awestruck when the next two film come out. Usually, I don't really like it when several film are made of one book, particularly a book as small as this one. But I can grant an exception here, firstly because there will never be enough Rowling, and secondly because she herself wrote the Fantastic Beasts screenplay, which means the films really are a true reflection of her story, even if they aren't exactly the same as the original book. So maybe I will read it after all!

This film only came out last Friday, so is set to be in cinemas for a good while longer and I think you'd be daft not to try and catch it, it's worth every penny!