FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

(2016) Seventy years before Harry Potter would read the seminal work of Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), the young British wizard arrives as a young man at Ellis Island in New York City, bearing a small suitcase chock-full of creatures he is transporting quite illegally within the wizarding community and into the States.  When one breaks loose, Newt's endeavors to recapture it has him crossing paths with a No-Maj (non-magical human - what they call Muggles in the UK), baker Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), who accidentally walks off with Newt's case instead of his own, setting both Scamander and a demoted Auror named Tina, out to arrest Newt for being an unregistered wizard, on a quest to keep the creatures in check - even as darker forces are at work that could not only bring down the wizarding community, but start them off on a war with humans.  I was worried there would be way too much CGI in this film to appeal to me - and there is a lot, obviously - but I still found myself very much charmed with the story, characters, look of the film, and Redmayne's turn as Newt (though granted, Redmayne is starting to perfect the introverted, jerky looking-away nervous thing so well, he's repeating the tic in his films).  The cast is terrific, effects more than believable enough to pull you in, and for me there was never a dull minute, the film providing some very cool eye candy while building up suspense to a satisfying finale.  (rated PG-13) 8.5/10 stars