As Potterheads will already know, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a prequel to the Harry Potter franchise, written by novelist J.K. Rowling herself.

Yes, for the first time, fans of the magical saga can head to theaters to watch a film from this enchanting universe without having read the book it was based on first and, as a result, view the narrative unfold on the silver screen without any knowledge of the storyline.

The advantage of this is that viewers can genuinely be surprised by the twists and turns, and enjoy the narrative without any preconceived notions. Sadly, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them isn’t quite the magical film I had been hoping for, lacking the engaging storytelling I have come to expect from J.K. Rowling. This is not to say that it is a bad film. On the contrary, it’s mostly good, but it carries some glaring flaws.

To start with, while the performances are adequate from the two main performers, Eddie Redmayne (Newt Scamander) and Colin Farrell (Percival Graves), the chemistry between Redmayne and the three supporting actors in the film — Katherine Waterston (Porpentina Goldstein), Dan Fogler (Jacob Kowalski) and Alison Sudol (Queenie Goldstein) — is lacking. This is unfortunate since these four carry the majority of the film. Thankfully, Sudol adds some much-needed energy to the proceedings.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them lacks the engaging storytelling we have come to expect from J.K. Rowling

Then there is the pacing and overall direction of the film. Fantastic Beasts has been criticised for poor pacing, some uninspired scenes and jarring tonal changes. The blame has been placed on director David Yates’ shoulders with critics surprised that the veteran Harry Potter helmer was unable to process the screenplay for once. The criticism certainly rings true as the film sometimes seems like it is unsure of itself and is unable to convincingly transition between bleak and joyful scenes. At the same time, this has always been an issue with David Yates’ Harry Potter films. My theory is that because we read the books before we watched the films, we were able to mentally fill in the tonal gaps ourselves.

These issues aside, Fantastic Beasts is certainly worth a watch, especially for the beasts themselves. You can find them consistently throughout the film as our hero Newt struggles to return them to his magical suitcase in New York. And they certainly are fantastic. You have to hand it to Rowling, for the beasts are whimsical to behold and as imaginative as you’d expect. The animation that brings them to life is top notch. Some of the large-scale action scenes that feature them are worth the admission price alone. I also enjoyed the setting of 1920s New York as the backdrop of the action/fantasy film.

Appreciably, for a film setting up a new lucrative franchise, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is more subtle in this regard than most. The longer arc involving the horribly evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald and the start of the Wizard World War left me salivating. I, for one, can’t wait to see Dumbledore do battle with Grindelwald in the future.

Rated PG-13 for fantasy action violence

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, December 4th, 2016