Film
Fantastic Beasts double bill
- Director
- David Yates
- Certificate
- 12A
- Running Time
- 267 mins
The Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings that was the Harry Potter series, the new trilogy from the JK Rowling industry is something of a prequel. This is a chance to reacquiant yourself with the first film and catch one of the earliest screenings of the second one.
Set decades before the squitty Potter lad shows up at Hogwarts, part one is the tale of eccentric ‘Magizoologist’ Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), who embarks on a mission to catalogue Potterworld’s critters. On arrival in New York in 1926, his magically expanded briefcase disgorges a number of dangerous beasts. This heightens tensions between wizardy and non-wizardy folks and proves something of a gift to the extremist New Salem Philanthropic Society, which is bent on eradicating witches and wizards altogether.
The second movie, The Crimes of Grindelwald, sees naughty wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp, who was glipmpsed only briefly in the role in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) embarking on his dastardly plan to impose wizardy rule over non-magical beings.
Ranged against him are Redmayne‘s Newt Scamander and the famously homosexual Albert Dumbledore (Jude Law, making his debut in the role). Non-aficionados may be forgiven for suspecting that this conflict within the magical community is almost identical to that played out among the mutants in the endless X-Men series.
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