Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, is a new movie based on the newest novel by J. K. Rowling, about the wizarding world in New York.

This movie brings back the magic, happiness, and suspense felt in the original Harry Potter films. One will feel the most suspense when the four main characters are going after some of the creatures. But there is more suspense in the end, when they are trying to stop someone from killing everyone in New York.

The movie did an amazing job of portraying the wizarding world in a different country and time period from Harry Potter. It did a fantastic job of showing that not all creatures are bad, and they are not exactly what everyone says they are. This American wizarding world learns that the No-Mag are not as bad and bloodthirsty as they portray them to still be after years of not living among them.

This is the first wizarding movie that Eddie Redmayne has been in, and he plays the hero, a magizoologist named Newt Scamander. Newt is seen in the film having a hard time being social with people, and having a better relationship with his creatures. Redmayne has played a role in The Danish Girl, Les Miserables, Savage Grace, and The Theory of Everything. 

Dan Fogler plays Jacob Kowalski, who is a muggle, but in America called an No-Maj (that is someone who is not part of the magical world). We first meet him when he is on his way to the bank to get a loan to start a bakery. His main role in the film is to get people to open up to new things, and to accept that change can be good. I liked Jacob because he was the character who made us laugh the most, and even though he was not the main character, he was still an important character. I thought Fogler’s acting was fantastic and the producers did a great job filling in this role.

Porpentina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) is an American witch and former auror (police officer) and is demoted for using magic in front of No-Maj’s. She is a main character in the film, but I did not like her because she is completely power hungry and did not show enough emotion.

Queenie Goldstein (Fine Frenzy) is a more spirited and happy sister. Similar to Luna Lovegood, she is more willing to break the rules, unlike her rule driven sister. She is very understanding because she has the ability to read minds. When you first see her, you can tell how kind, gentle, nurturing, and trustful she is within the first minute of meeting her. In this film, her role was only meant to show that witches and wizards can love No-Maj’s, and that there is nothing wrong or dangerous about them all. For these reasons, I liked her more than Tina.

Newt is a magizoologist, who goes to New York in 1926, while Grindelwald is still attacking wizards in Britain.   So once he is in New York, he meets Jacob and they swap suitcases by accident, when Newt gets them away from the police. When Jacob gets back to his apartment he hears the suitcase open, and he looks inside and the creatures come out and one of them attacks Jacob.

Newt and Tina go to get Jacob and they bring him to Tina’s apartment. When Jacob wakes up, he and Newt go into the case once the girls leave. When in the suitcase, you see all these different climates for the creatures that Newt has attained for years. After hearing the story of all these creatures, Jacob agrees to help with getting all of them back. They first go to Central Park for one of his biggest creatures. The journey starts there, the two going off to get all the creatures back, and then things went very wrong soon after. This, to me, was the best part of the film since one was seeing all these different creatures that had never been seen before, and experienced what some people in the novel are also learning about.

My two favorite creatures were the first one that is shown and another we see in the suitcase. The first creature was a niffler, which is a small, adorable creature that has black fur and a beak. Niffler’s are known known for their love of shiny and valuable objects. The reason I like the niffler the most is because he is hilarious and because he is always trying to escape to steal more shiny objects from people.

A huge winged white bird, called a thunderbird can create thunderstorms while flying, and it can sense when something bad is going to happen.

Overall, I give this film a 10/10. I recommend this for everyone, even those people who have never watched Harry Potter. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them shows that nothing is black and white, and there is always a grey area. We also learn that you can not judge something or someone until you get to meet them. Not until then will you truly know what is dangerous in people.