Harry Potter and the Expanded Universe of Hogwarts.

Rating: 7/10 (19 December 2016)

Fantastic Beasts is a good movie. Not great for me personally but it's much more entertaining prequel material than The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy. The effects in this thing are beautiful, and JK Rowling knows how to write in a way that she shows her visual imagination. The story and dialogue though? Good first attempt but she's going to need more practice in the screen writing craft if she wants to make a name for herself in that field. She knows how to set things up for future movies in a way that is satisfying whilst also being a little disappointing too. This film is a good though flawed spectacle worth a trip to the cinema.
Fantastic Beasts sets things up for a potentially promising saga that builds upon the world established in the Harry Potter movies and books. I look forward to the future installments of this series truly, but I thought that the antagonist Grindelwald was the most underdeveloped aspect of the movie. The villain kind of sucks in this thing because we know nothing about him nor do we know any of his motives; we have to wait for a sequel to really get into what his motivations and grand-schemes are.
Newt Scamander was a great character, and I liked Jacob Kowalski; they were good leads for this pre-cursor to the world-famous Harry Potter franchise. I liked their chemistry and they made for some really entertaining scenes. They were more interesting than their antagonistic threat, which should have been a looming presence in a film like this. For me I loved the main characters but the villain didn't work compared Voldemort; Newt makes the film. Eddie Redmayne makes a really charming wizard.
Go see Fantastic Beasts. It's a good time-spender at the movies. It's right up Harry-Potter-fans' alley and won't leave you bored frozen. It's good escapism.