First Hour is truly magical ... Second Hour, Not So Much

Rating: 7/10 (22 November 2016)

I believe it speaks to the enormous "fun factor" in the first hour of Fantastic Beasts that the second hour -- which is typical of the what passes for slam-bang action in many of Hollywood's current A-list films -- tries to keep up, but ultimately falls flat.
The internal dynamic of the film that fascinates.
In the first hour we get something most of us thought we would never see -- Hogwarts in New York.
Every moment of that opener is more fascinating than the moment that preceded it, and I can think of few films this can be said about.
The cast is uniformly excellent. Standouts are, first, Eddie Redmayne. He may be young but if you have followed his work you know he is an actor's actor with a brilliant career ahead Another standout is Alison Sudol who personifies the good-natured gal from 1001 American movies from the 1940s.
Then unfortunately we get the second hour and everything starts to come apart as suddenly Harry Potter yields to Avengers (civil war, internal conflicts) and even (in the fight scenes) to Dr. Strange battling Dormammu.
If you stick it out, Beasts has what can best be considered a happy ending but nothing can change the fact that the "happiness arc" for the viewer -- to coin a term -- starts at a high and heads downhill.