Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

This may be further evidence that, incredibly, the whole Harry Potter thing was built upon a flash in the pan. J.K. Rowling gets a writer credit on this film, which means she's to blame for the fact that the movie has way too much plot and not nearly enough story. As with her books, this work starts out OK, then bogs down into too much complexity as it goes forward--not to mention that certain story elements wind up just not making much sense. The suspicion has to set in, at a certain point, that she's just not a very good writer, and had the good fortune--and fortune is the right word--to put out her one decent book, in just the right style with just the right vibe, at just the right time. Of course, it's hardly Rowling's fault that the film relies way too much on visual effects versus actual story or, indeed, moviemaking. There's a certain sense that the producers (she's one of them, too) cynically figured that they could just toss an orgy of visual effects in front of the rubes and get away with their lesser efforts, and perhaps they did, in most viewers' eyes. But the Bad Cat, while giving a MEOW, is doing so in a whisper, largely because the cast acquit themselves quite well in a movie that otherwise lacks conviction. Otherwise, this is a HISS.