Welcome to The Morning After, where I share with you what movies I’ve seen over the past week. Below, you will find short reviews of those movies along with a star rating. Full length reviews may come at a later date.

So, here is what I watched this past week:

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Any fan of the Harry Potter franchise, whether the books or the movies, owes it to themselves to see this film. While there are only a handful of references directly to the Harry Potter films/books, the world building on display is spectacular. J.K. Rowling’s strongest talents are in creating magical realism and exploring the dark recesses, and humanity, of the mind.

The story revolves around a British wizard who brings into New York City, a case filled with magical beasts. When some of them escape, he is drawn into a strange concurrent plot that involves the American version of the Ministry of Magic and a repressed magician wrecking the city and threatening to expose them all. Eddie Redmayne is boyishly charming as Newt Scamander, the British wizard who cares more about the animals in his possession than about the witches, wizards, and no-majs (American muggles), around him.

The cast is solid with Colin Farrell as an auror (magical police), Dan Folger as the no-maj who becomes Newt’s sidekick, Katherine Waterston as as an ex-auror fighting to capture and eventually assist Newt, Alison Sudol as her mind-reading sister, Samantha Morton as a New Salemite (anti-witch crusader), Ezra Miller as her abused son, and Carmen Ejogo as the wizard president.

Under the direction of David Yates, who finished out the Harry Potter series, this magical film is filled to the brim with brilliant effects, daring originality, and plenty of atmospheric quality. The film’s plot is a bit overburdened, weaving in a couple of useless plot lines (that may be embellished later on), but it all seems fitting for a set up to future endeavors. The 11th hour cameo is disappointing, but the overall content of the film is engaging for any Harry Potter fan. Astute viewers will spot or hear all sorts of references to the future world of Harry Potter, but expanded universe of this film gives one hope that future installments will be a bit more self-contained while progressing the storyline more effectively.