Harry Potter: Every Wizarding World Movie Ranked Worst To Best

Fantastic Beasts shouldn't have worked. It's a spin-off of a massively lucrative film series based on beloved books, which has attracted accusations of over-extension (after 4 sequels were announced)... In other words, it's the Wizarding World's version of The Hobbit. But, while Peter Jackson made it very obvious he was turning The Hobbit into Lord Of The Rings, Fantastic Beasts is a clearly different product and it is served very well by having JK Rowling write it.

The casting of Eddie Redmayne as the lead is a great move, given his profile, but the cast as a whole is incredibly well balanced, and the shift to America doesn't feel at all like an abandonment of the world Rowling originally built for the Potter movies. It should be considered as one of the finest films in this series, and I honestly believe the affection for it will actually grow with time.

The Good

The magical spirit is perfect, but it also draws the right level of distinction between the Harry Potter films and this new arm. The lore feels rich and lived in, the effects are mostly great and the story is great. Best of all, it sets up the possibility of a whole spin-off series in a way that isn't overly insistent or manipulative, because it feels like the start of something.

And rather bravely, it might be a series that casts off its lead after one outing, and that wouldn't even be fatal.

The Bad

Did anyone really need to see Eddie Redmayne doing a sex dance for a giant rhino creature? Also, if you're not a Redmayne fan, he WILL grate for exactly the same reasons everyone else will love him.