Good movie, could have been great

Rating: 8/10 (4 December 2016)

Rating: 4/5 (Worth watching multiple times.)
What earned the film the rating: Interesting characters, interesting themes, fantastic CGI work
Comments
The two stories: The problem with trying to tell two stories at the same time is that there will be no time left to properly explore either. On one hand this film is an adventure story about a wizard trying to recapture his lost creatures in a city hostile not just to him but all his "seriously misunderstood" beastly companions. The conflict here is between Newt and the magical authorities of New York and the focus are the creatures. In this story the main antagonist needs to be a creature hunter trying to get rid of Newt's magical friends by whatever means necessary. This is a somewhat clichéd story with not too much depth or room for drama besides maybe the death of a cute creature, but it's a light adventure for the whole family, it has no room for abusive anti-wizard orphanages or the obscurus. The other story is a deeper look at the problems stemming from the hidden nature of magical society. This story is about how one wizard is attempting to expose the wizarding world to those lacking magic by using an obscurus within a young man. Here the roles are Graves trying to use Credence as a means to expose the wizarding world, the MACUSA trying to kill him because he is a threat and Newt, seeing Credence treated with the same hostility as his creatures are and coming to empathize with the boy trying to save him. This story has no room for lengthy scenes of creature capturing or an end of the movie reveal of Credence being the obscura. Graves and Newt both need to be actively engaging with Credence long before the finale. Mushing up the two stories deprives this movie of its full potential. One example of how this happens is the death of Cadence at the hand of the MACUSA aurors. All this event needed to be a heart wrenching, teary tragedy that audiences would have remembered for the rest of their lives as a memorable film experience is for Credence's character to be more fully explored and after being engaged by both Graves and Newt, to be on the verge of casting aside his dark side at the time of his death.
The big twist reveal: This is the worst moment of the film for several reasons: the number one reason is that it cheapens the villain's character. An auror trying to expose the wizarding world because a potential war between the magical and non-magical societies is still preferable to wasting his vast talents on obliviating no-majs day after day is a character with light and dark sides, created by the imperfection of the system in place. His motivations a well defined, clear and stem from the established background of the story. This character is interesting. "He was an evil dark wizard all along" Secondly, this twist was so telegraphed that, honestly, I'm only guessing it was intended to be one. The Grindelwald character is introduced early, then fails to show up as part of the conflict signaling that one of the characters is in fact him in hiding, then the single villainous characters is shown doing literal back alley deals, clearly manipulating an innocent. Anybody who ever watched a movie before knew this was coming.
Kowalski: I'm not a fan of tourist characters in any story. While, IMHO, Dan Fogler's performance was the best in the film, his character was completely extraneous. As a veteran and the only no-maj of the main cast he could have been more proactive as the member of the protagonist's group who can provide non magical solutions to problems the wizarding characters are unable to solve with the magical tools at their disposal.