Okay

Rating: 6/10 (22 December 2016)

As someone who watches films more to review them than enjoy them - which is more of a curse than a blessing, I might add - I think this was okay. Not as good as the main Harry Potter series but decent. I liked the throw-backs - or throw-forwards, since it's a prequel - to the other movies and, as befitting for such a film, there was a good variety of magical creatures. Yeah, I could tell they were CGI as were most, if not all of the other effects, but I didn't mind.
However, none of the characters really interested me, aside from perhaps Credence and Gellert Grindlewald but in the latter's case, that's only because of what I know about him from the books. I don't really remember much about the other characters and sort of wish Dumbledore had appeared, especially since in the books, it was said that he personally defeated Grindlewald. However the greatest duel in the history of the wizarding world is probably better left to the imagination and on top of that, Grindlewald was confident that the authorities wouldn't be able to hold him for long. No doubt, he escaped later. I also like that he fought several Aurors simultaneously and was winning easily until one of Newt's Magical Creatures attacked him from behind. He's not as powerful as Voldemort but I actually wouldn't have been surprised if he defeated the entire group of Aurors single-handed if he wasn't hit by that sneak attack.
Eddie Redmayne was good but I wasn't very interested in Newt's character. The only thing about him that stood out to me was when he commented "I find that worrying means you suffer twice". Say what you will about the rest of the dialogue, but that was a good line. Maybe they should have put Hagrid in the leading role since not only is he more interesting but finding and befriending Magical Beasts, especially dangerous ones, was something he was very good at and he would give us a stronger link back to the main series. However it's clear that this film was trying to be its own thing and expand the magical world and it does a decent job at that, despite it's flaws in many other areas, particularly characterization. The performers were okay but none of the characters were written with interesting personalities, except perhaps Credence.
I thought the little girl was going to be the Obscurus so it was a bit surprising to find out it was her brother instead. I see Credence's suppression of magic as a warning about suppressing your thoughts and feelings. You have to find some kind of outlet for them or else the consequences could be devastating. My outlet for thoughts and feelings is writing them down. Credence wasn't really evil, he was a product of his environment and the Obscurus developed because he had to constantly suppress his powers, to the point where even Grindlewald thought he was a Squib. After years of abuse and suppressing his abilities, it's no wonder the guy went on a rampage. Even so, he didn't deserve to die.
I also liked that it was kind of left to interpretation about whether the "non-mag" really lost his memory. When the woman kissed him, she was holding her wand and it might have been my imagination, but I'm pretty sure there was a barrier over them to block the memory-erasing rain. It's also possible that the kiss included a subtle spell to give him his memories back. Whether he remembered her or fell in love with her all over again when she visits him at the end is also left to interpretation. I like films that don't spell things out for the audience and leave us to make up our own minds.
Overall, this is not a great movie but it's not bad either. It pretty much just gives us what it promised so at least it's not false marketing (unlike the Star Wars "sequel" The Force Awakens) There's a few throw-backs/throw-forwards to the Harry Potter films, a message about preserving the lives of animals and the magical creatures, while obviously CGI, still include some decent designs and at least one of them even had some personality. I especially liked design of the four winged eagle that created the memory erasing rain and the affectionate little plant-like creature who was constantly clinging to Newt.