Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Thank goodness for technology.
Newt (Eddie Redmayne) arrives in New York where the wizarding world is very, very separate from the no-mag, short for no magic, aka Muggles, as the Brits call them but this term hasn't carried across the ocean. Despite the law that it is illegal to have magical animals in New York, Newt has several missions with his creatures, including letting one of them loose in his native Arizona.
But he is distracted when one of his thieving animals who likes shiny things gets loose and his suitcase is switched with that of aspiring Muggle baker Jacob (Dan Fogler, excellent), so things get complicated really fast.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, former Auror Tina (Katherine Waterston) is on his case and is at first livid that he got a Muggle mixed up in his mess and doesn't care, at first, about him rescuing his animals. She brings him and Jacob back to her nice apartment which she shares with her mind-reading younger sister, Queenie (Alison Sudol) who develops an instant attraction to Jacob.
The film truly gets interesting when Newt and Jacob travel into his suitcase where he has a whole world devoted to Newt's magical creatures including some that are very rare and exotic. Redmayne finally becomes alive and at ease among his true loves. Those are his best scenes.
Though part of the film is Newt sneaking around the city getting his animals back, there is another plot line that gets complicated.
In addition to Newt and Tina committing crimes as they have gotten the Muggle world involved, they have an Auror, Mr. Graves (Colin Farrell), after them, and there is a force that lives in a select few Muggle children who have magical abilities but cannot foster their gift and if it escapes, the consequences can be deadly, which is what happens. Samantha Morton is wasted as a woman who runs an orphanage and speaks out against any magic of any kind. That plot is less interesting and more complicated and confusing than the gathering up of the animals, though everything works out in the end, with the force being destroyed and the bad guy in prison.
The problem with the film, in addition to the chunky plot, is the acting. Some are great, but Redmayne (whom I love and is usually quite good) is an oddball of a character, with a hunched posture and the inability to look others in the eye, though he is an intelligent man. Though his actions have thought behind them, it isn't in the right direction. His performance is confusing, at best, and bizarre at worse. It is a shame as everyone else is great.
The technology is wonderful with my favorite scene being when Queenie assembles strudel in mid-air, you can see the ingredients come together, including the powdered sugar.
With melancholy colors, the cinematography has a dark, dense look about it, as though it was still filmed in Britain as the others had been, there should have been a different feel to this film. It should have been more American. Grade: B-