Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has more stories to tell about her Wizarding World, and like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings before her, she’s doing a prequel story (and her first screenplay) that takes place decades before The Boy Who Lived took on You-Know-Who. Set in 1926 New York City, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them follows soft-spoken, awkward magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) as he attempts to return all of the escaped magical creatures to the zoo inside his briefcase. While the beasts are indeed fantastic, watching Newt and his new group of friends round them up just isn’t as entertaining or compelling as Harry, Ron and Hermione running around Hogwarts.

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Newt has been sent with Dumbledore’s blessing to research a textbook he’s writing about different fantastic beasts. He’s introverted and a bit clumsy, but he has an earnest passion for weird and potentially dangerous creatures, not unlike Hagrid. After running into disgraced, former auror/wizard cop Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) and no-maj/muggle Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), a series of daffy events forces them to stick together. A much-too-late addition to the group is mind-reading sister Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol), the highlight of the quartet with her bright attitude, sugary voice, and a habit of poking into people’s thoughts.That the group never quite clicks together in the right way is a huge reason the rest of the movie doesn’t find its footing.Newt and company get into increasingly large amounts of trouble with the American magical authority known as the MACUSA while trying to round up the beasts, and all the while a much darker, more dreary plot unfolds as esteemed auror Percival Graves (Colin Farrell) looks into a magic-hating, no-maj family that includes a particularly troubled young man named Credence (Ezra Miller).This causes the movie to suffer from tonal whiplash, as one moment Newt is performing a ridiculous mating dance to lure a rhino with a bulbous head full of lava back into his briefcase and the next we witness child abuse, psychological trauma, and murder. Yes, the Harry Potter saga was rich with tragedy and black humor, but it was delivered seamlessly, whereas Fantastic Beasts compartmentalizes the contrasting tones until trying to haphazardly bring them together.The blame doesn’t fall on the actors or the script as much as it does the direction of four-time Harry Potter director David Yates. The Potter films gained a sense of visual stiffness when he entered the franchise with Order of the Phoenix, and although he did manage to find his rhythm for the final two Deathly Hallows installments, he’s now fallen back a step, filling Fantastic Beasts with static shots, dead air, and obvious use of green screen.One scene inside the Goldstein apartment sees Queenie use magic so dinner prepares itself mid-air before settling down on the table. Being the no-maj in the group, Jacob is understandably astounded by what he’s seeing, yet he does nothing more than look on in awe. Flying plates. Jacob’s wide-eyed face. Soaring napkins. Jacob’s face. Floating strudel. Jacob still making that same face, not even adding in an exclamation of disbelief. We’re not impressed much by special effects we’ve seen plenty of in the Potter films, and he’s not exactly selling it, so the scene falls flat instead of feeling like a wondrous, charming step into the world of magic.Getting to see the magical side of New York City has its high points, but it also feels like the setting wasn’t mined enough. We do get to traverse some strange places inside the MACUSA headquarters, magically veiled inside the Woolworth Building, and there is a pitstop to a goblin’s (Ron Perlman) speakeasy where a performer sings a song while conjuring her own stage effects. All new and intriguing sights, to be sure, but the movie doesn’t embrace the rich culture and diverse people that makes the Big Apple what it is.The film does make good on its selling point by introducing a wide array of delightfully strange magical creatures. The best scene sees Newt giving Jacob a tour of the makeshift menagerie inside his enchanted suitcase. Everything from the snake-birds to the blowfish-tigers are exquisitely rendered and teeming with majestic wonder. Really, anytime the fantastic beasts are on screen -- especially the thieving, too-cute-for-words Niffler -- the movie comes alive, the music swells, and you get that little kick of magic you expect from Rowling’s Wizarding World.Sadly, when attention switches back to the characters, things go back to feeling a bit dull.The two disparate plotlines eventually clunk together, but the movie never establishes any real stakes -- certainly nothing as frightful as the Dark Lord returning to power and killing the likable protagonist -- so even though a magical threat endangers the city, it’s hard to get caught up in it all. By the time the movie ends, a few threads pique enough interest to want to see what happens next, but could we just spend a couple hours inside the briefcase instead?