Chris Luckett

In a lot of ways, Fantastic Beasts (including its four sequels) is the new The Hobbit. Not only does the series serve as a prequel to the bigger story of The Lord of the Rings/Harry Potter, but stretching an already-thin book into a multiple-film tale causes inescapable problems.

Peter Jackson’s Hobbit film series suffered from trying too hard to compensate with visual effects, desperately trying to obfuscate its narrative deficiencies. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them would likely suffer the same fate if not for one powerful advantage: one of the most talented and impressive casts of any movie this year.

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