I think I’d make a good Doctor Who you know…..

I suppose it would be easy for me to just say that this will be successful regardless because it features more wizzo adventures in JK Rowling’s obscenely successful Harry Potter universe. But then again, perhaps it would be unfair. After all, this film, the first of many to come by all accounts, actually does a much better job with the mix of magic and us lowly humans and therefore doesn’t quite disappear up its own arse like the Harry Potter stories did towards the end. Granted that’s subjective and based on my own personal observations but if nothing else, I do tend to write what I believe.

And I believe that if they keep this level up, this will grow to be far more enjoyable.

While Harry Potter was based in recent history, this film takes us back to the 1920s where we find gorgeous “danish boy-girl” Eddie Redmayne appearing as Newt Scamander (which made think of that villain from the Bond films for some reason to start with), a chap who seems to have come to New York for reasons unknown to begin with carrying a magical suitcase.

He then losses a couple of weird creatures from said briefcase and proceeds to chase after them, bumping into the likes of Katherine Waterston as Porpentina “Tina” Goldstein. She’s a magic FBI type person working in town, and at the bank, Newt bumps into Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski. Jacob just wants to set-up a bakery, but gets caught up with all the ensuing madness which comes along. But hey at least he meets a cute blonde lady (Queenie Goldstein, played by Alison Sudol) which he wants to do magical things with….cough…. But I’m getting ahead of myself. At the magical FBI building it seems that the higher ups are discussing various lies, treachery and deceit that’s been taking place in New York. And there’s an enemy within.

Seems ol’ Colin Farrell (Percival Graves who works for the magic FBI) is up to no good in enlisting the help of a beaten down chap who’s under the thumb of his overbearing and frankly braindead mother. Why? Seems he needs a host for something called an Obscurus, which apparently turns up when children with magic powers can’t use them and have to instead hide them. Put it this way, you’re not going to invite an Obscurus to your birthday party. Well, not unless you want to kill everyone else. Which you may do…..because you like the cake and don’t want to share maybe….I’ll carry on.

Scooby and the Gang arrive, trying to find out who is really haunting the amusement park….

As time goes on, we go into Newt’s suitcase and see all sorts of wonderful creatures and suddenly it’s starts to come together. The different storylines come together in a non rushed manner and we get to know the characters more and actually come to like them a lot and get invested in what happens to Newt and the gang.

The biggest observation I can make about the characters and acting, is that Eddie Redmayne seems to be channeling the power of Matt Smith as Doctor Who throughout the story and at times, it’s hard to get that out of your mind. Hell with the suitcase that’s bigger on the inside than the outside, he may as well have a damned TARDIS. Other than that, the actors and actresses do actually give a decent performance, never outstaying their welcome and honestly I don’t have any complaints there.

The special effects are of course impressive so you’re not going to be disappointed in that department and setting this in the 1920s gives this a more interesting backdrop with real world events still ongoing. In a way, I kind of wanted to see more of the interaction between the magic and non-magic people and perhaps how events with one faction affected another without them knowing. For example, how much did the magic FBI intervene in the first world war? It actually brings up many more possibilities than what happened in the Harry Potter universe previously and I hope they take full advantage of that.

The story as silly as it was, made sense and clearly a lot of thought went into making this mixed world much richer with so much attention to detail yet keeping things really simple at the end of it all. There were several themes explored and of course there was a big reveal at the end which has been spoiled elsewhere but I’ll refrain from doing so here. Suffice to say the bad guy for the next film is well and truly established.

Would I recommend this for people to watch, even if they are not fans of Harry Potter type stuff? Actually I would. It’s obviously an entertaining blockbuster but also gives us a much needed grounding in the world with a normal chap which allowed us to really experience the story more through his eyes, a new setting with new possibilities and hopefully this will continue onwards in the coming sequels. JK Rowling, and Warner Bros, I have to say, very well done.