I really like the wizarding world that Rowling created and I enjoyed the first Fantastic Beast film, there was a humanity and kindness to it.
Unfortunately this film is hot a mess. If you’re not a true fan with a deep understanding of the family relationships, things that are going to become a big issue in the Harry Potter movies you will be utterly baffled by many of the dialogue exchanges and things that should have emotional import just land with a thud and die quivering on the ground.
It is filled with long expository lumps of dialogue about family trees, flashbacks that serve no purpose as it relates to the current problem. The effects that create the beasts are cool, and I rather like Newt. It’s rather refreshing to have a hero who isn’t square jawed, steely eyed, and utterly confident and kick ass.
They don’t use the delightful Jacob near enough, Queenie is ruined, Tina is hardly used. They undercut the emotional ending of the first film, and wasted a lovely Asian actress. Frankly I was interested in Newt’s brother and his fiancé and their complicated relationship with Newt more than the returned from the dead character.
Bottom line — the problem with this movie was the script which was a shame because I admire J.K. Rowling. This desperately needed to be a novel (which I would have enjoyed reading) and not an overly long movie.
