Wizards frequently use Apparition. It's a stark contrast with the Harry Potter films and books where the majority of the protagonists were students and thus not experienced enough to use it liberally.
Newton Scamander displays that he is fully worthy and qualified to have the title of the main protagonist in his own series by having both superb command over some of the most dangerous magical creatures in the world and clearly excellent magical skills.
Within a matter of moments, he repairs the entire upper half of Jacob's apartment as if it was easy. Reparo had never been used to such an extent before apart from when Dumbledore himself did it.
Then his Suitcase. Hermione had cast an Undetectable Expension Charm before to fit in her bag several clothes for herself, Ron and Harry? Newt thoroughly beats her in that regard. His Suitcase is enchanted with such a strong spell that it is transformed into an entirely wide space for dozens of magical creatures to live in! Not only that, while Hermione only ever used Muggle Repelling Charms, Newt outright knew a spell to enchant his Suitcase so it can transform itself when opened by Muggles into a pair of ordinary objects.
Newt repeatedly demonstrating his acute knowledge of beasts by being able to swiftly come up with ways to recapture his escaped beasts. While it's not always easy, the fact that Newt seems to always be so prepared and ready to deal with them demonstrates exactly why he is considered the expert of magical creatures and the author of the most notorious book on magical creatures.
Scamander makes very good use of his Swooping Evil to escape MACUSA with Tina. Also to confront Graves as well at the end. It goes to show that his command over the fantastic beasts borders on Wrong Context Magic for wizards unprepared for them. Because of this, he manages to restrain Gellert Grindelwald in the climax.
Highlights of the MACUSA breakout: the Swooping Evil uses itself as a stepping stone to help Tina escape from liquid that would have dissolved her on contact, and attacks a MACUSA officer standing in their way. Extra points for Newt — the Swooping Evil is about to eat the brains of the official, but all Newt has to do is tell it to stop and it immediately listens.
Also counts as an Awesome Moment for the Swooping Evil. Taking out the likes of Grindelwald in one move surely rates it a five-X MOM classification: something usually seen only for Beasts the size of a bus.
The Swooping Evil aside, Newt proved that he was worthy of being considered a favorite student of Albus Dumbledore and a participant of World War I by being an exceptional fighter in his own right. To say that he is straight-out better than the trio in dueling would be an understatement.
One particular moment was him delivering a Curb-Stomp Battle on 3 executioners... Unarmed! Demonstrating a level of skill in hand-to-hand combat unseen in literately every other wizard or witch, even those who tend to get physical when needed like Ron, after Prickett breaks his handcuffs, he quickly punches a male guard down and then moves faster than a woman can aim her wand at him to turn her spell against another executioner.
It gets even better afterwards once he has acquired a wand of his own. After the Swooping Evil took down several Aurors for him, he then demonstrates he doesn't actually need the creature to wipe the floor with the MACUSA Aurors when he easily blocks spells from 3 Aurors and then takes them down before they can cast another spell, moving his wand so fast that it's over in a matter of seconds.
Most impressively, Newt tangling in a magical fight with Grindelwald and doing better than Tina did against him and when Harry took on Voldemrt. Whereas Voldemort was using simple and basic spells to utterly overwhelm Harry back then, Grindelwald was using dangerous lightning spells against Newt and he still manages to block a decent amount of them. He wasn't even pushed back like Harry did when blocking Voldemort's spells. And when he is finally downed, with Grindelwald posed to torture him, is he left helpless like Harry once was during the Graveyard in a similar situation with Voldemort? No! He continues to do his best, manages to block Grindelwald's spells and holds himself from screaming when Grindelwald manages to strike him whereas Harry screamed out loud when Voldemort tortured him. Even Grindelwald seemed frustrated with Newt's persistance. When Credence rampages, he is quickly ready and able to apparate out of harm's way and is left with no lasting harm to himself.
Newt demonstrating his smarts by not only capturing Graves/Grindelwald rather easily after the latter looked ready to sweep an entire room full of MACUSA Aurors and officials by catching him off-guard but also then revealing who he truly is. He looked as if he had known the moment Grindelwald had asked him about Dumbledore and the Greater Good.
The release of Frank the Thunderbird to help wipe the memories of everyone in New York of all the magical chaos that has happened over the past few days.
Hell, the fact that, according to J.K. Rowling, Frank did indeed make it back to Arizona! Newt may not have delivered him personally to Arizona, but he got him damn well close enough for Frank to make it the rest of the way.
The fact that Newt gives absolutely no fucks as to someone's blood status; if he likes you, you're his friend.
At one point, Newt talks back to Grindelwald himself disguised as Graves. While probably already suspecting Graves as who he really is and in a condition where Graves can instantly decide to put him to death, Newt gives some nasty words that demonstrates that he may not be a warrior of the Ministry, but he is still very much against Grindelwald. Grindelwald was impressed, to say the least.
Newt (Glaring at Graves/Grindelwald): I am not one of Grindelwald's fanatics.... Mister Graves. (Grindelwald smiling as if he expected nothing less from a student of Dumbledore)
One for Britain — doesn't matter whether you're Pure, half, Muggle, or Muggleborn. You can marry whoever the hell you like, unlike America. Sure, people may disapprove of mixed marriages in Britain, but they have not made it illegal like America has by the time of the film.note Granted, the British wizards haven't spent the last three centuries facing dedicated efforts towards exposure and genocide by the Scourers, unlike the Americans, and so seem unable to understand that Rappaport's law exists as a survival mechanism for wizards rather than a racist act of spite. It was also repealed in the 1960s.
On the flipside, America gets one too for having none of the toxic blood-purity culture that tore wizarding Britain in two and drove the Death Eaters' horrific crimes. While marrying actual Muggles is illegal, intermarriage with Muggle-borns is perfectly acceptable. This is especially awesome considering how 1920s America saw a truly nasty increase in racism against all sorts of minorities (especially Italians), including the resurgence of the KKK.
Jacob discovers the inside of Scamander's suitcase, which contains a genuine zoo with a wide range of rare magical creatures from the most colorful to the most imposing and majestic.
Scamander has a freaking Nundu in his suitcase-zoo, which he had apparently managed to tame to some extent. According to the textbook he wrote, it takes the cooperation of at least a hundred wizards to subdue one.
Fridge Brilliance: It takes at least a hundred wizards to subdue a Nundu by force, but Newt doesn't subdue his animals, he befriends them.
Jacob punching feared gang leader and goblin Gnarlack in the face after he sold them out to MACUSA.
Jacob having the courage to relatch Newt's case just as a large dangerous beast was threatening to escape. He probably saved them an expedition around New York.
Literately everything Grindelwald does in this film. While keeping up a magical disguise as Percival Graves, not having the Elder Wand, and also holding back clearly in order to maximize his impersonation, he still demonstrates One-Man Army level magical abilities that reminds exactly why Grindelwald is considered by Dumbledore to be very nearly on par with him. Despite the feats of power he displays, in this fight and the film in general, we never hear him utter a single word. It's impressive to see a character casually pulling off tricks the Harry Potter cast would have found daunting during their time as teenagers — and sometimes even without his wand!
Him vs Tina is not even a fight, as he just easily blocks all her moves and even looks annoyed, making it clear that she is not even near his league. And once he has had enough of her pathetic efforts to take him down, he throws a car at her with his bare hands to knock her down. For Tina's defense, the fact that she even managed to trade blows with him for that long and avoid that car was already quite impressive.
Then he fights Newt and while Newt puts up a better fight than Tina did, even making Graves resort to actively attacking him, it's clear Grindelwald is still leagues above him and had such control over the fight that Newt can only launch a single spell at him and spends the rest of the time attacking Newt so hard Newt can't even launch another spell. Again, he uses his bare hands to knock down Newt with a shockwave! Then he launches lightning bolts at him as if it was as natural as breathing and while he is visibly frustrated that Newt is still not truly defeated near the end, it's clear it would not have taken much longer before Newt would be utterly defeated.
Finally, Grindelwald vs 30 MACUSA Aurors at once. There was not even a single trace of fear in his face when the Aurors make it clear he will only be leaving after defeating them. He just looks as if he was actually looking forward to the fight and walks back and then proceeds to quickly overwhelm them single-handedly, taking them down like flies until Newt has finally restrained him. All this while using just regular spells and nothing too impressive. That's right. Without even using any destructive magic, just employing traditional dueling skills, Grindelwald surpassed 30 Aurors so much that it's only moments before several of them are already down on the ground. His wand movements are so ridiculously fast that it seems like a blur as he manifests a Shield Charm so large as to block multiple spells as if it was as easy as moving and whenever he attacks them, the attacks land successfully without any signs of Grindelwald's defense slipping. Truly the ultimate example of traditional dueling ever.
Graves' transformation into Grindelwald (done very well visually, and the accompanying music is so fitting), and the subsequent portrayal of Real!Grindelwald. With two lines and less than a minute of screentime, Johnny Depp manages to exude a sinisterness that at least matches, if not surpasses, Voldemort's.
Even Grindelwald's last moments are quite noteworthy. Disarmed and captured for the first time in the one country who tends to execute prisoners, Grindelwald shows absolutely no fear. He just mocks them for believing they can hold him.
Queenie senses that her sister is in trouble and, with Jacob, manages to break into Graves' office, steal back Newt's case and his and Tina's wands, and manages to use the old "woman problems" excuse to absolute perfection. Tina is an Auror, Queenie is not. Apparently just being badass runs in this family...
It's outright shown that Queenie has the skill to be an Auror, she probably just doesn't want to be bothered with all the rules.
The way Queenie and Jacob get into Graves' office deserves a mention. After Queenie's attempts at unlocking Graves' office door with magic fails, Jacob kicks down the door. And it works. This may be the first time we've seen the muggle — sorry, the no-maj way trump magic on-screen.
Queenie decides "fuck the law" and falls hard for Jacob. It's implied by the ending that they get together in the end!
The Obscurial's identity: Obscurials are always destroyed by their own twisted power before their tenth birthday. Credence is twenty one. Newt is flabbergasted by how he must be powerful to live so long, and Graves outright calls him a true miracle.
Credence coldly telling Graves that he doesn't want to control his Obscurus anymore and willingly lashing out. It's the only thing he does completely of his own volition in the movie.
Obscurials are violent, destructive, and unstoppable by anything other than an entire platoon of skilled wizards firing spells at it. Newt and Tina nearly manage to calm Credence!Obscurus down if they didn't burst in and start firing immediately.
The rebuilding of New York City by MACUSA wizards following what the fight between the Obscurus, Grindelwald, and Tina/Newt did to it was a sight to behold, especially that one scene where a MACUSA wizard is casually strolling across the steel beams that make up the unfinished skyscraper, putting it back together. For someone who was raised in New York City, that was a The World Is Just Awesome moment.
Jacob's bakery is a smashing success; he has a line out the door. At the start of the film, the banker refused him a loan partly because the banker didn't think a bakery would be a success at all since machines can make more pastries per hour. Jacob's personal touch is superior.
