Dive back into the world of J.K. Rowling!

Rating: 7/10 (17 November 2016)

This movie is from the same world as Harry Potter but with a different story and different characters. And it's refreshing somehow to get to see other places in the same world. What it's like in America, new creatures we haven't seen before and also to explore a different time when Grindlewald was ravaging the world. Things they only mentioned in the Harry Potter films and were left to our imagination.
A good thing about this movie is that it lives up to its expectations in my opinion. It's all there, spells, monsters, elves, wizards. No annoying Harry Potter (seriously Radcliffe has annoyed me with his weird acting throughout the whole series). There are a whole bunch of easter eggs for fans too (Albus Dumbledores name and the Deathly Hallows symbol to mention a few things that got the audience to whisper excitedly). The story is good and exciting too, especially the second half which has some great tension to it.
But that's what brings me to some of the bad parts that lower my score a little bit:
1. It's quite confusing at first and it takes about half of the movie before you get what the story is about. They're just showing off new things instead of establishing the actual drama.
2. It also had the same feel about it that the Harry Potter films did: I felt there was something missing. Like a crucial detail from the book that would have made a lot of sense and explained a lot, but they either forgot about it or left it out, having to cut the movie to cinema length. For example, if you haven't read the Harry Potter novels you will never get a proper explanation to who Gellert Grindlewald is anywhere in the films. It's very obvious they were made for the fans in the first place.
3. In some parts the CGI isn't really convincing either and there is a couple of too obvious green screen moments. And what about all the colors? The Harry Potter films appear grey next to this one..
4. The ending is very dragged out. They could easily have made that five minutes shorter, although the acting is very good and you really start to feel something for the characters. Strange why they didn't do that sooner?
But other than that I really enjoyed it! Worth watching!