Fantastic Beasts, Where to Find them and the (Unrelated) Crimes of Grindelwald

It’s entirely possible that I don’t really understand Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Upon seeing the movie in theatres a few short years ago, I felt indifference. Sure, there were beasts. Yes, they appeared fantastic. But I didn’t really understand why we were focusing on them so much, in a film where the plot didn’t seem to necessarily revolve around them. Knowing that this was the first in an ambitious series of movies set in the Harry Potter Wizarding World, I could chalk up my confusion to a few things:  This movie is an introduction  We meet Newt and his friends, as well as enemies and locations and I would think, most importantly, we meet all these beasts. When we jump into Newt’s infinite bag of tricks, we’re seeing some pretty bewildering creatures doing their thing, and I have to assume that those creatures, with their abilities and quirks, will play into the plot either later in this movie (preferable) or perhaps later, already planned sequels.  I haven’t read the books  Are there even Fantastic Beasts books? A published screenplay, perhaps, but I tapped out of reading…

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