Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

I was sad many years ago when the last Harry Potter book, The Deathly Hallows, was finally released in the Philippines because it meant that I was going to finally find out how his saga ended. I was, while reading The Deathly Hallows for the first time, shocked, grieving, flabbergasted, and then content. But still, I felt like J.K. Rowling had only shown us the tip of the iceberg that is the U.K.'s wizarding community... or the wizarding world in general.

And so when I found out that the adventures of Newt Scamander was about to be put into film, I was so excited. We were diving back into the world of witches and wizards! Not in one movie, but in three!

The first movie put us right in the middle of the story. Newt, a magizoologist, was just disembarking from a ship in New York City. He was on his way to free one of the magical creatures that reside in his magical suitcase. Alas, the naughty Niffler escaped the suitcase and started niffling through muggles' (or in the U.S.A., the no-majs') personal effects to collect as manny shiny objects as possible. Thanks to the chaos that ensued, Newt got a no-maj, a former Auror, and her Legilimens sister involved in his adventure... one that led to an obscurius and to the discovery of the darkest wizard of his generation, Gellert Grindelwald.

Yeah, I found it easy to get sucked into the wizarding world again... though the characters were all new. Eddie Redmayne surely made us feel home again. And seeing Colin Farrell, Jon Voight, and Johnny Depp made teh film feel familiar, though I haven't read the book yet.

The movie was more than two hours long and I fell asleep while watching it for the first time. I have to say, though, that I watched the last full show and I was really tired. The second time I watched it, I was more engaged with the movie and I didn't fall asleep (finally!).

Already looking forward to the next Newt Scamander adventure!