Should have been 30 minutes less

Rating: 4/10 (10 December 2016)

So the basic premise of the movie is that Newt Scamander has a magical briefcase of creatures that get let lose in New York. Meanwhile an obscurus, a magical entity, is tearing up the city. The NY magical government thinks that Newts animals are behind the destruction and so Newt must find a way to prove his innocence and find out more about the mysterious magical entity causing the chaos.
Both these plot points are fine and good concepts, but they are integrated rather poorly. This is mainly because of the incredibly odd pacing of the movie. Many scenes of dialogue are extremely long and dull, and the way the characters interact is rather strange. Yes, the characters are eccentric, but the characters in this movie are all so far into their eccentricities that it takes away from any natural feeling the dialogue could have had. There are long scenes where characters awkwardly pause in conversation, and long staring scenes reminiscent of Twighlight. I cannot figure out why. For comedic effect? To endear the audience? Either way, it damages any dialogue heavy scenes in the film and makes them awkward to sit through.
Many scenes were slow for seemingly no reason. When Newt, Porpetina, Kowalski and Tina meet in their apartment, there is a long, drawn out scene of Kowalski being in awe of Tina. It is drawn out to such a horrific extent that even Seth Macfarlane would blush. Other scenes simply went on for too long, like a weird scene with a horny rino type creature chasing Kowalski. The scene adds nothing and only serves to draw out the run time.
In contrast, many scenes crucial to the plot are rushed, and the dialogue delivered in a hushed accent so that unless you are on full alert, these plot points will be easily missed. I imagine the movie is also very confusing to anyone who has not read either the Harry Potter or the FB books. The onus is on you to know what spells such as "obliviate" mean. I'm a die-hard HP fan so I was fine but I'm sure it would be hard to follow for any casual fan.
The pacing is also terrible on a macro scale. The first half of the movie is purely awkward pointless dialogue interspliced with fast set up scenes, whilst the second half is a seizure inducing CGI fest. The main "villain" is set up so poorly and you really will not care as to the outcome of the movie, since it simply does not do a good enough of a job to make you care.
This movie simply does not live up to the Harry Potter movies. Those movies that were so reliant on dialogue and character development contrast to this movie that is so lacking in that department. These characters are all simply too wacky and inane for me to take seriously any plight they have. Kowalski by far had the best arc, and was the most endearing and down to Earth character (makes sense seeing as he is a "nomaj").
Yes, the HP movies have the advantage of having 8 movies to set up characters we care about. But this is no excuse, since I was almost instantly endeared in film one of HP to the lovable trio. As I say, only Kowalski gave me any enjoyment in this movie. He was lovable, relatable, funny and natural- unlike every other character in this movie.
I would not recommend you see this movie other than for perhaps pure curiosity. But don't see it in cinema, it ain't worth the ticket. This does not feel in any way like Harry Potter, and has none of the brilliance of that series. This movie for lack of a better word is a trainwreck of plot, writing, pacing and action. I suppose some set pieces looked nice but CGI rarely impresses me any more. Wait for home release and judge for yourself. But I went into this movie with no bias or expectations and it simply is not good both as a standalone movie or part of this iconic and loved franchise.
This film scrapes a 4/10. It would have gotten a 2 if Kowalski wasn't so damn good.