I hope the magic will return

Rating: 5/10 (10 October 2017)

Generally speaking, I enjoyed watching this movie, but there certainly are some flaws which I hope will be fixed in the upcoming ones. Let's start with the protagonist - Newt Scamander. I thought he was fairly likable, but I was waiting to find out more about his past, his personality and his quest, which never happened. I don't know if the producers thought it was worth waiting with the reveal of his backstory till the next movie, but can't agree with that. The other characters: the muggle (or no-maj) baker Jacob Kowalski - likable and funny. I also liked Queenie and the romantic subplot between them. The "main" side-kick, Tina, however, was nothing but an utterly boring character with an equally boring backstory. I kept wishing she wouldn't stick around for the whole movie, but she did.
The main problem I have with this movie is the messy plot which is supposed to be about Newt and his journey, but somehow ends up bouncing around the presence of an "obscurial" in New York city, a creature never mentioned in any of the HP books/movies btw, which only adds to the confusion. I personally didn't quite understand what obscurials were and why everyone was freaking out about them.
Then there's the bad guy who doesn't really seem bad nor good and you spend more time hating the obscurial boy's cruel stepmother. The obscurial is supposed to serve some purpose I guess, but is destroyed in the end so the subplot never fully makes sense. The kinda bad guy turns out to be Grindelwald which is cool for those who have read the books, but otherwise the reveal just feels awkward.
And last but not least... Where is all the magic?? The beasts are present and there are some magical elements. The entire bar scene was probably my favorite part of the movie because it finally felt like being back in that magical universe we all came to love. But otherwise - very few spells were cast and when they were, it was completely stripped of any emotions which felt wrong because of how much emphasis there was on the emotional aspect of spellcasting in Harry Potter. Overall, it was a fun enough movie but with underdeveloped characters, and as a whole simply didn't feel magical enough. Not giving up on this franchise though, and I hope the magic will return in the next movies!