Not as Good as it Could Have Been

Rating: 7/10 (21 November 2016)

The premise is exciting, the cast is interesting, the scenery is great. But somehow it doesn't hold together really well, or to say differently: it's not better than the Harry Potter movies.
It will be a good TV movie for children to watch, but it's never going to be remembered as great cinema.
It suffers from the same "dryness" as the Harry Potter series. Director David Yates simply has difficulty transmitting the magical world atmosphere in his adaptation of J.K. Rowling's material. Some nice CGI will not make up for conventional editing.
The biggest flaw is the very limited and barely functional usage of music. For long period of times there is no music at all, and if one thing is important in a movie about magic, it's music. It's just stack on under some scenes in a cheap fashion.
Then there is the music itself, that after recycling the Harry Potter theme in the intro disappear into the realm of unimportant art forms. It's just a few orchestral effects here and there, no memorable themes.
David Yates doesn't seem to understand that music is just as important as the images.
In short: The direction in general is way too conventional for a movie about magic. All the costume, set designers and actors did an great job with what they had.
Just wished it had been better.