The Beasts Really Are Fantastic

I don’t often do reviews, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. Partly because I just love going to the cinema and COVID put a stop to it for so long and now the cost of living crisis is doing the same. Thank goodness for Vodafone and their 2 for £7 vue vouchers allowing myself and my girlfriend to attend for peanuts. It wasn’t the perfect cinema experience, due to a friend (demoted now to associate) breaking all the basic laws of cinema etiquette. Arriving late, moving loudly, flashing torch everywhere, talking, eating loud food during quiet scenes, slurping drink and then getting up to go to the toilet AS WELL.

These all occurred, thankfully, near the beginning of the film. But that was okay because it got off to a bit of a slow start. I think a great many of us were trying to remember what important events took place in the last movie. I’d had to recap the major events in McDonald’s before I went, having completely forgotten that Credence was revealed to be a Dumbledore. Perhaps Rowling was aware that many of us hadn’t paid huge attention to the complexities of the second movie because the character of Professor Lally Hicks (the brilliant Jessica Williams) gives a nice recap to Jacob Kowalski which is clearly meant for us.

The plot quickly picked up and became interestingly political, moving to Germany where there is an election that Grindelwald is trying to stand in. There seem to be obvious parallels to the rise of Nazism being made here. I found this interesting because Rowling has recently been accused of antisemitism, but what was more interesting was the character of the outgoing German Minister of Magic Anton Vogul, who makes the decision to let Grindelwald stand because, even though he disagrees with him, the vote should count. This is considered to be an example of Dumbledore’s notion of “doing what is easy, not what is right” yet I found it interesting in light of Rowling’s “cancellation” and her advocacy of giving voices to everyone even when you disagree with them. I’m not sure what point she was trying to convey, if any.

Anyway, back to the film, which was described in most reviews as sidelining Newt Scamander and making Dumbledore the central character. Although I do like Jude Law’s Dumbledore, I was worried about this because I love Eddie Redmayne’s adorably awkward magizoologist. Thankfully, however, this wasn’t the case in my view. Dumbledore’s importance is increased but Newt remains a central character, accompanied by the hugely likeable Kowalski played by Dan Fogler and a whole host of likeable supporting characters. I have no opinion (or interest, to be honest) in the controversy surrounding Johnny Depp, but Mads Mikkelsen plays Grindelwald very well, and the chemistry with Law works. I’m still not sure what “homosexual content” was removed in the Chinese release, because I didn’t see anything particularly strong that lasted ‘six seconds,’ but I guess that just shows how ridiculous homophobic people are.

The best part of the movie by far, however, is the beasts! The best, cutest and most entertaining supporting characters are Newt’s pets, niffler Teddy and bowtruckle Pickett. The scene where Newt must hone in on his magizooligist skills to stage a prison break and escape from a giant monster is brilliant and the highlight of the whole film. And the qilins, pure magical creatures who can see the human soul, are a graceful, if not a little ham-fisted, way of driving the plot and politics of the film - which in its final act does become a little generic and disjointed, having shown promise in the second act.

Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie as escapism and, as I say, the beasts really are fantastic!