While I really hope that you were already planning to watch Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them — the first film in a spin-off of the Harry Potter series — I can see why you might be on the fence about it. Actually, I really can’t (I bought my tickets to see it about a month ago, and I have no regrets). But I get it: it’s the end of the quarter, you have a lot on your plate, and — dare you say it — you might even be over this whole Harry Potter thing.
1. Some other people seem to like it. Just a smidge.
Fantastic Beasts has performed spectacularly on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 100% rating on the day of its premiere. It’s also received glowing reviews from publications like The Guardian and Rolling Stone. These people watch movies all day for a living, so if this movie stuck out to them, it might do the same for you.
2. It’s a full 28 minutes shorter than the longest Harry Potter movie.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ running time is a whopping 161 minutes. Thankfully, Fantastic Beasts is almost a half hour shorter at 133 minutes! While you might have set aside some time to study this week, let’s be honest — all those “five minute” social media breaks and the time it took to complete Buzzfeed quizzes about the kind of chicken nugget you’d be would eventually add up to 133 minutes. So why not just watch the movie?
3. It’s a little walk down memory lane.
Fantastic Beasts is set in 1920’s New York, and is a prequel to the original Harry Potter series. The protagonist of this movie, magizoologist Newt Scamander, came first and wrote the textbook that Harry, Ron and Hermione read decades later during their first year at Hogwarts (the golden trio are total 90s kids. Literally).
But in our world, we loved the Harry Potter franchise first. So many scenes in Fantastic Beasts seem to be paying homage to memorable moments from the Harry Potter films. One of the trailers, for example, begins with the repeated incantation of Lumos Maxima — which, to me, echoes the opening of the Prisoner of Azkaban, when Harry quietly practices casting the same spell under his blankets.
4. But there’s also so much we haven’t seen before.
A Magical Congress of the United States? No-Majs, not Muggles? What is all of this? Magic is well and alive beyond the realm of Hogwarts, and so are a slew of magical creatures. The Wizarding World really is a lot bigger than perhaps we ever thought it could be, and you’re never really done figuring out all of its secrets. When we’re given the chance to explore it, I think we should capitalize on it.
5. It’s a little too real.
In a weird twist of fate, Fantastic Beasts seems to be strangely timely. Those in early 20th century America don’t really understand these beasts, or see them as “fantastic” in the way we do today. They see them as dangerous, ugly and, well, beastly. In many ways, civil rights movements in the United States — especially in the wake of the election — continue to draw attention to how we attempt to keep out the people we don’t understand, like immigrants, instead of seeking to understand them, as Newt Scamander does.
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