Are you as confused by the latest cinematic entry in the Harry Potter universe as we are? Did you rabidly follow the adventures of Harry, Hermione and Ron for all seven books, but find yourself scratching your head about Fantastic Beasts and why you would want to watch it?
In no particular order, here are our most pressing concerns about Fantastic Beasts:
Fantastic Beasts is an elaboration on one of the clunkier subplots of the original Harry Potter series
While exact details about the plot are scarce at this point, we know the film centers around the rise of the Second Salemer’s movement, dogmatically opposed to the use of magic and, presumably, the mere existence of “fantastic beasts” of any sort. As you all know by now, sentient freckle Eddie Redmayne headlines Fantastic Beasts as Magizoologist Newt Scamander. Elsewhere we have Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller, who recently appeared as The Flash in Suicide Squad), whose adoptive mother is leading the Second Salemers movement. Spoiler alert: Miller’s character is probably an antagonist, judging from what he recently told Entertainment Weekly. “Everything’s like CIA-level… if I tell you sh– about my character, I swear there’s a sniper up on the roof that will take me out.”
Alison Sudol (who plays the mind reader Queenie in Fantastic Beasts) told EW: “There’s all kinds of things going on in our world right now concerning immigration and tensions between different groups. There’s a lot about segregation in this film, a lot about fear of the ‘other.’ These creatures, who the world sees as ugly, dangerous or weird, Newt has such love for them, and through his love we fall in love with them. J.K. Rowling has tapped into really deep and pertinent issues.”
This brings to mind Hermione’s SPEW (Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare) crusade that kicked off in the fourth novel, The Goblet of Fire. The mainline Harry Potter films never incorporated this plot thread, and with good reason. It often felt like draggy filler to pad out the school year, and Dobby, the house-elf that readers got to know best, didn’t manage to become an interesting or sympathetic character until he was dead. That’s not because Hermione’s cause wasn’t just, but because the blatantly obvious division between the good and evil sides of the debate didn’t add any tension or complexity to the story. Hopefully, Fantastic Beasts manages to give viewers some insight into the Second Salemer’s side of things, and not keep it so black and white.
Iffy source material is the backbone of Fantastic Beasts
Rowling wrote Fantastic Beasts between the publication of the fourth and fifth Harry Potter books, setting it 70 years before the events of the series. It’s a fictional textbook, written by Redmayne’s character, used in first-year Hogwarts courses.
As entertainment site Grunge argued, “we haven't heard anything about the super important adventures of Newt Scamander in the original Harry Potter movies. So if no one at Hogwarts has mentioned the heroic deeds performed by that guy who wrote their zoology textbook, why should we care about what he does?”
Indeed. Apart from a brief mention of Scamander’s book in The Sorcerer’s/Philosopher’s Stone, it really doesn’t figure into the main story at all. In other words, this guy’s hardly the Boba Fett of Hogwarts.
Fantastic Beasts is planned as a trilogy
Both Variety and the BBC have quoted the head of Warner Bros., Kevin Tsujihara, as saying Fantastic Beasts will be a trilogy. Not only is this a discouraging reminder of the three-part cash grab that was the desecration of The Hobbit, it also gives us a pretty clear indication that nothing of tremendous import is likely to happen in the first film; it’s likely going to be a lot of setup and CGI monsters.
Consider two of the most beloved film trilogies of the last generation or so, Star Wars and Back to the Future. The first entries of each work as standalone films, because they were designed and written as such. It wasn’t until Luke Skywalker and Marty McFly’s adventures proved to be a hit with audiences that filmmakers delved deeper into the worlds of these characters. These were good movies in their own right, not the foundation for a cross-platform marketing blitz.
The BBC claims Rowling told Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the Potter films, that she completed the draft script for Fantastic Beasts in 12 days. Sounds impressive, right? Maybe not. Rowling famously spent years working on the central concept and storyline of Harry Potter, and endured a years-long cycle of rejection and revision before it became a global cultural phenomenon. Even the most prodigious, proven creative talents need limits, people willing to say “no” to some ideas. When that doesn’t happen, you get bilge like The Phantom Menace. Lets hope Rowling doesn’t get too carried away with the momentum of her past successes.
But hey, it’s easy to be a cynical crank. Maybe Fantastic Beasts will surprise us with a compelling story and rich characters, despite the potential red flags. We deserve it, after a summer of underwhelming bilge.
We’ll know which way the cookie crumbles when Fantastic Beasts hits theaters worldwide Nov. 18.
