Review of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) by Movie1997 — 13 Dec 2016

For someone that is really into the Harry Potter universe, I was actually kind of excited for this movie. However, the movie was simply enjoyable, but nothing special. I'll start off with some positives.

First off, I was intrigued with the concept of having to recapture the beasts. The beasts were very unique and interesting to watch. As much as I personally do not like Eddie Redmayne as an actor, I thought he was fine as Newt Scamander.

Nothing special, but serviceable. I really enjoyed Dan Folger as Kowalski, or the no-maj as he's referred to in the movie. I liked seeing him really get caught up in this world and forming this awkward friendship with Newt Scamander.

At the same time, I also found his relationship with the character of Queenie to be even more interesting than I could have possibly imagined. Most importantly, despite the movies numerous "Lord of the Rings" like endings, what happens to Kowalski at the end of the movie honestly left me touched.

However, the movie has quite a bit of flaws. The movie suffers from pacing issues. Some scenes played out better than others. The whole Ezra Miller storyline didn't really captivate me and felt as if it was from a completely different movie.

But the biggest reveal in the movie, while truly surprising, didn't feel needed in any way, shape or form. If you've seen the movie, you will definitely know what I am talking about. And the ending itself went on way too damn long.

Like I mentioned before, I like what happened with the no-maj character, but everything else happening at the end simply did not need to happen. There were definitely two movies going on at the same time, which was very distracting.

At the same time, I cared about our main protagonists and wanted to learn more about them, which is why I ended up enjoying the movie in the long run. Overall, for a messy movie, it still provides some interesting new additions to this movie universe that fans will not be disappointed with.