'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' proved to be spellbinding cinematography

Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) sprinted across the screen, blue coattails flying and wand raised aloft. His suitcase was in his other hand, the worn brown leather thumping into his leg and threatening to throw him off balance with every step.

Scamander spent a large portion of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" running, but as he ran, wind blowing his hair in every direction, he somehow managed to run right into the hearts of the audience. Scamander’s pigeon-toed stance, shy hesitance and soft voice were all somehow endearing, and he led the audience through a movie that was both enchanting and well-designed.

"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" was — dare I say it? Fantastic. Brilliant, as the British would say.

In passing, most people have referred to Fantastic Beasts as “the new Harry Potter” movie, expecting a spin-off that looks and feels like the eight-part movie series chronicling Harry Potter and his fight against dark magic.

Fantastic Beasts wasn’t Harry Potter, though. It was entirely different in a way that was fresh and exciting and gave new life to J.K. Rowling’s world of wizardry. It was Rowling’s screenwriting debut, and together with director David Yates, a new world in a 1926 New York City was born.

The story follows Newt Scamander, the wizarding equivalent of a zoologist and the soon-to-be author of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," a textbook read by Harry Potter himself 70 years after the movie takes place.

Scamander arrives in New York City after traveling around the world studying and collecting magical creatures. After a run-in with a bumbling, non-magical citizen, Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), a few of these creatures escape his suitcase to cause chaos in the city.

Kowalski and Scamander, along with wizarding sisters Porpentina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) and Queenie (Alison Sudol), spend the majority of the first half of the movie getting to know each other and humorously whisking around the city to collect the missing creatures.

This fun, heart-warming first half of the movie is a good introduction to characters which will presumably be a large part of the next four movies in the Fantastic Beast quintology.

Meanwhile, there are, of course, darker forces moving within the city. Scamander arrives in New York right as tensions between magical and non-magical citizens are at a high point.

A group called the Second Salemers, led by Mary Lou (Samantha Morton), is determined to find and destroy all witches, and there are characters within the wizarding government that seem to have ulterior motives. Percival Graves (Colin Farrell) is one such character, and his clandestine meetings with a Second Salem boy, Credence (Ezra Miller), have a dark and almost predatory feel. 

In the second half of the movie, New York City is destroyed — as is normally its fate in movies of this type. Buildings fall to ruins, and wizards run through the streets trying to fight evil. An end scene reveals Johnny Depp playing a classic villain from the Harry Potter series.

Old Harry Potter fans and new arrivals to the wizarding world alike will both find joy in the exploration of the new characters and plots. The magical creatures especially held a place of wonder. They were revealed within the sanctuary of Scamander’s suitcase in a beautifully designed scene that shifted and turned with such perfectly timed movements that it held the audience, dare I say it?

Spellbound.

@allison_melrose

swerve@dailytarheel.com