First, this is a pretty good expansion on the Harry Potter universe, and we get a glimpse of the US version and their different culture and law (in a different era).
It also brings to life many magical creatures and their properties.
The problem is that most of the magical creatures seem to be shoehorned into a section in the middle of the film.
A large portion of the plot, that is, what starts at the background in Act 1 and becomes the foreground of act 3, is what really drives the story. It's about the war against Grindelwald and finding the source of the Obscurus. This is where people with agency, decisions, goals, actually act.
The whole monster-chase part is, essentially, filler. It's fun, there's lots of CG (some good, some bad), but the monsters are just dumb monsters. They have no goals other than base instinct, so it's just about finding them and getting them back into the briefcase. Other than a Niffler at the beginning which basically sets up the characters meeting, the film basically stops to show off some monsters every few minutes but does nothing to drive the plot forward.
But hey, that's the movie title. There's just no real plot to the monster-finding part of it.
Also, regarding the main character: I definitely have mixed feelings about him. For one, he's obviously an introverted type with anxiety around other people - not the usual kind of hero, so I applaud the writers for trying to put that kind of character in the limelight. At the same time, he's almost oblivious to the trouble he's causing, and most of the problems really are his own fault. Not just the initial monster release, but almost all the difficulty in recapturing them were really just blunders on his part. So I find it hard to root for him. Most of the other characters are enjoyable, though.
Unfortunately, this appears to be slated for a whole series, and I'm not sure if I'd enjoy seeing Newt Scamander again.
Good for worldbuilding, but with some flaws
First, this is a pretty good expansion on the Harry Potter universe, and we get a glimpse of the US version and their different culture and law (in a different era).
It also brings to life many magical creatures and their properties.
The problem is that most of the magical creatures seem to be shoehorned into a section in the middle of the film.
A large portion of the plot, that is, what starts at the background in Act 1 and becomes the foreground of act 3, is what really drives the story. It's about the war against Grindelwald and finding the source of the Obscurus. This is where people with agency, decisions, goals, actually act.
The whole monster-chase part is, essentially, filler. It's fun, there's lots of CG (some good, some bad), but the monsters are just dumb monsters. They have no goals other than base instinct, so it's just about finding them and getting them back into the briefcase. Other than a Niffler at the beginning which basically sets up the characters meeting, the film basically stops to show off some monsters every few minutes but does nothing to drive the plot forward.
But hey, that's the movie title. There's just no real plot to the monster-finding part of it.
Also, regarding the main character: I definitely have mixed feelings about him. For one, he's obviously an introverted type with anxiety around other people - not the usual kind of hero, so I applaud the writers for trying to put that kind of character in the limelight. At the same time, he's almost oblivious to the trouble he's causing, and most of the problems really are his own fault. Not just the initial monster release, but almost all the difficulty in recapturing them were really just blunders on his part. So I find it hard to root for him. Most of the other characters are enjoyable, though.
Unfortunately, this appears to be slated for a whole series, and I'm not sure if I'd enjoy seeing Newt Scamander again.