(Spoiler Free)

For the avid fans of J.K Rowling’s saga and magical world, a new movie has made it’s way into cinemas. And no, it has nothing to do with Harry Potter.

Fantastic Beasts and where to find them is actually set on 1920s New York —quite far from the original storyline setting. The American feel is surely a breath of fresh air, getting out of Hogwarts and classes and rules, letting us indulge and wonder about what truly makes this fictional world so whimsical: the interactions between everything magic and non-magical people. But overall, the film charts a new path through familiar magical terrain. Instead of schoolchildren learning their craft, the protagonists here are fully formed wizards—with the exception of Kowalski, the No-Maj, who is himself a welcome addition. (‘No-majs’ being the American term for ‘muggles’). This makes us focus more on other aspects of the story, like the character development, relationships or even a little bit of magic politics.

The main character, Newt (Eddie Redmayne), is not your typical hero. He is charmingly awkward and shy, evading eye contact whenever possible. His approach to the magical creatures and his view of this world is something to look out for. Specially knowing his quest of writing the book turned out to make quite a change in the magical world, as it ends up being a syllabus for Harry Potter and gang to study at Hogwarts later in the future.

Its only downside is that it feels as if 3 hours of content were squeezed into 2. Too many sub-plotlines that could have been explored are depressingly left alone. But, if we take into account this was merely supposed to establish the new setting and characters in eve of 4 more movies to come, let’s just hope the following movies thread back into these plotlines we just caught a glimpse of.

Have you seen the movie? Did you like it? Give us your opinion below!