And Where To Find Them - Fantastic Beasts

The MACUSA headquarters is a soaring, gilded chamber hidden inside the Woolworth Building. The Speakeasy (a magical speakeasy where goblins serve cocktails) is dripping with jazz-age hedonism. It’s a world of cloche hats, secret handshakes, and wands concealed as walking sticks.

The first film’s modest promise—“Let’s explore magical creatures in 1920s New York”—was abandoned for an epic about the 1945 duel between Dumbledore and Grindelwald. By the time the third film arrived, the creatures were afterthoughts. The Niffler got a cameo. The heart was gone. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a film of two halves. One is a gentle, melancholic story about a lonely man who loves monsters because monsters are easier than people. The other is a grim parable about child abuse, fascism, and the horrors of magical segregation.

Things go wrong when Newt accidentally swaps suitcases with Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), a kind-hearted No-Maj (American for Muggle) cannery worker who dreams of opening a bakery. Jacob inadvertently releases several creatures into Manhattan. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

★★★½ (3.5/5)

Meanwhile, the Magical Congress of the USA (MACUSA) is on edge. The dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald has been attacking Europe. American wizards live under strict segregation—no fraternizing with No-Majs, no marriage, not even friendship. Leading the hunt for magical breaches is auror Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) and her mind-reading sister Queenie (Alison Sudol). The MACUSA headquarters is a soaring, gilded chamber

Tracking Newt, Tina and Jacob are drawn into a mystery involving a malevolent, silent force called an Obscurus—a parasitic entity born from a magical child forced to suppress their powers. The Obscurus is destroying New York, and the perpetrator is not a monster, but a lonely, abused boy named Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller).

In the end, Fantastic Beasts 1 is like Newt himself: awkward, kind, deeply wounded, and far more interesting than it first appears. It just couldn’t carry the weight of an entire cinematic universe on its suitcase straps. Featured image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures / 2016 The heart was gone

In a devastating climax, MACUSA kills Credence to stop the Obscurus. The true villain, revealed to be Percival Graves (Colin Farrell)—actually Grindelwald in disguise—is captured. Newt releases Frank the thunderbird over New York to disperse a Swooping Evil’s venom, erasing the No-Majs’ memories of the chaos. Jacob, who has fallen in love with Queenie, is forced to walk into the rain and forget everything.