from Hogwarts,” said Anthony
Lane in The New Yorker. J.K.
Rowling’s Harry Potter spinoff
introduces a new story, set
decades before Harry enrolled
at the storied school, and the
result is “a cunning and peppy
surprise.” Eddie Redmayne stars
as Newt Scamander, a wizard
who arrives in 1926 New York
to find and collect endangered magical beasts in
an enchanted suitcase. Redmayne overdoes Newt’s
shyness, but the rest of the cast is “sturdy,” and the
magic tricks Newt and friends toss off remind us
that wizardry is most compelling out in the world,
when it “clashes against the iron of ordinary lives.”
Unfortunately, Fantastic Beasts
“doesn’t really have a plot,” said
Dan Kois in Slate.com. Several
creatures escape Newt’s suitcase,
prompting a hunt through a city
awash in anti-wizard prejudice.
But Rowling has too many stories
and rules to establish for the
five-film franchise she’s launching,
and this entry gets bogged
down by exposition. The best of
the Harry Potter movies “benefited from screenplays
that combined sharp dialogue with strong dramatic
carpentry,” said Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street
Journal. This “perfectly pleasant” movie does “little
more” than set the stage for a potentially enjoyable
franchise. “Here’s hoping for magical sequels.”