Although J.K. Rowling may have cut her teeth on writing the HARRY POTTER series of books, I don't think that same level of craftsmanship carried over to her first outing as a screenwriter for FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM. This film adaptation of Rowling's auxiliary publication of a fictional textbook is, at best, uneven. Tonally, it seems to want to achieve all of the emotional beats of the entirety of the HARRY POTTER films, but in only one film. As a result, much of it never really lines up.
On the one hand, Eddie Redmayne's section of the film as Newt Scamander, author of the titular book the movie is (loosely) based off of, seems to want to be mostly the first film, THE SORCERER'S STONE, what with the whimsy and somewhat forced precociousness of Redmayne's portrayal of Scamander. Unfortunately, that's essentially all he is: kinda awkward. After this film was over, I had no idea who Newt Scamander really was besides superficial details. That characterizes much of his half of the film: surface-level whimsy and wonder with not much else to it dramatically.
On the other hand, we have the more serious section of the film, with Colin Farrell's Graves. It's this section of the film, with its focus on the Second Salem Society (a sort of neo-puritanical reaction to witches), and the complex interactions between its members, wizarding leadership, and the human government, that contains all of the depth of the film. These characters have real motivations, some of them shifting and overlapping, and feel more like actual people. It's a shame it feels crudely grafted on to its sub-par, but visually interesting, other half.
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