Good, but not great

Rating: 8/10 (18 November 2016)

We travel once again into the magical world of Harry Potter, several decades before the rise of You-Know-Who and the birth of The Boy Who Lived, by following the misadventures of Newt Scamander in America and discovering his Fantastic Beasts. In this misadventure we get a treat of a film that is a decent follow up to the masterpiece of its predecessor but stumbles a little on the execution.
The biggest fault of the film is the story, or at least specific parts of it. The film is a little too obvious with its foreshadowing and setup, which distracts from the rest of the film. The entire subplot with the "exposure of the magical world" and the involvement of the "Magical Congress of the United States of America" (or "MACUSA") is interesting, but ultimately unnecessary for the movie until the sequels come out. When the film focuses on the Fantastic Beasts and Newt Scamander themselves, it shines, only to be rusted by the political overtones and the unneeded dark magic involved.
The characters are all fun and very distinct. They all have very unique looks and actions to them that makes them memorable and likable. The distinctions come to a disadvantage, however. The roles of each character is so obviously cliché that, if it weren't for the decent acting chops of all involved and the additional character tidbits added in, it would be rather painful. Newt is obviously the hero, Kowalski is obviously the comic relief, Tina is obviously the heroic girl and so on.
The effects are a little questionable. It's easy to make out a lot of the CGI, and the filmmakers would have done well to use more practical effects. Especially for creatures that were on screen for a long time. For a movie that's based around them, that's a pretty big flaw.
The movie is good, but it could have been much better. If they cut out the subplots and add in more practical effects, we could have had the Magical World equivalent of Jurassic Park. Instead we get an enjoyable movie that is bogged down by stories that are obviously meant to set up future sequels.