8 Most Hotly Anticipated 2016 Films (And Why They'll Be Disappointing)

8. Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them

What It Is: Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them is a massively anticipated Harry Potter spin-off. The film is set seventy years before the events in Harry Potter, and tells the tale of writer Newt Scamander, who lives in New York's secret community of witches and wizards. Why It'll Be Disappointing: If you thought Peter Jackson had a rough time creating three films out of a single book, spare a thought for director David Yates, who is trying to make a film out of a one-hundred and twenty page short that was written for charity and features no narrative at all, but is actually just an academic study by something called a Magizoologist. In general, it's a terrible idea to try and force a narrative where there simply isn't one. Despite the fact that J.K. Rowling is involved with the screenplay, it's difficult not to be reminded of Peter Jackson's desperate attempt to conjure up extra story elements in The Hobbit. Like Rowling, Jackson had a track record of creating something incredible (and he was also using the brilliant J.R.R. Tolkien's writing as a source), yet he couldn't escape the curse of contrivance. Couple that with the fact that no fan favourite characters are returning, and things get even more worrying. As strong as Rowling's writing is, the film situation was something of a "catching lightening in a bottle" scenario, as the cast turned out to be an absolutely perfect combination, something that is rarely replicated on a second attempt. If you don't believe me, take a look at the first trailer, which seems tonally uneven. Like the latter Potter movies, it's fairly po-faced, but unlike those films (in which the fate of the world hung in the balance), the subject matter is completely absurd. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj1devH5JP4