Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

Must See Movie...

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

There has been a suggestion that this film is the start of what is apparently going to be a Harry Potter prequel series. Well, the films do occur before the Harry Potter films, this one being set in 1926, and there are slated to be five in this series to be released, but a part of me feels that as opposed to the Star Wars prequels, which Lucas was said to have envisioned long before they were released, but wasn't able to produced them due to the lack of technology and the costs involves, these films seem to simply exist to capitalise on the Harry Potter phenomena. Honestly, I don't necessarily believe that this is a bad thing, especially if something works, and from the results that this film produced it is quite clear that it was very well received. Okay, Cinema Sins wasn't all that impressed with the film, but then again that is Cinema Sins and you generally take everything he says with a grain of salt. Still, he is right in one thing and that this film simply exists to capitalise on Harry Potter, and a lot of flaws that he points out do hold a lot of water. For instance, I pretty much worked out who the bad guy was (the wizard Grimwald) right from the word go, and also there does seem to be two films running in tandem, though I don't necessarily believe that this is a bad thing. Anyway, we have this zoologist, Newt (or mago-zoologist to be more precise) arriving in New York. He says that he is interested in meeting up with a breeder of magical creatures, though as it turns out the Americans aren't really all that keen on magical animals, and in fact are hunting them to extinction. Newt's goal is to basically convince the world that these creatures aren't all that bad and that we should learn to admire them for the beauty that they happen to be. Oh, he also carries around this case that happens to be a portal to an extra-dimensional world where he keeps all of his creatures. The thing is, as happens with a lot of these films, is that our friend arrives in New York in the middle of a crisis. There happens to be this invisible creature running around causing havoc everywhere. However, he has other problems on his mind because his case ends up getting switched with a muggle's case (I could see that happening from a mile away as well, particularly since it was quite clear that they happened to be carrying the same case). Anyway, there is another wizard, Tina Goldstein, who is in disgrace and is doing everything she can to get back into the wizard's good books. Not surprisingly, since a muggle happens to have the wizard's case, when he opens it all of the creatures get out. I guess that was the better part of the film, our protagonists running around trying to get all of the creatures back into the case, and the sub-plot (which turns out to be the main plot) of the wizard who is trying to suppress his abilities, and that in turn being released as a violent force that is destroying the city, probably wasn't all that necessary. Then again, this does happen to be main stream cinema, so I guess that this sort of subplot is actually needed. Of course, you also have Grimwald lurking around somewhere, though as I pointed out, it is pretty obviously right from the get-go who he actually is. Still, I quite enjoyed this film - it was actually a lot of fun. I guess it was a refreshing change to the the films that basically followed Harry through his time at Hogwarts. Mind you, from what I could tell I'm not convinced that these films are going to be setting the scene for the events in Harry Potter - this one doesn't seem to have any real connection with them, with the exception of a mention of Dumbledore and Hogwarts. Another thing I liked was Newt's character - he came across very shy and reserved, which I felt was very well done. You honestly don't see many characters like this these days.

Seriously, I fell asleep. The 1st half of the movie is an absolute waste of time. The plot development doesn't even begin until an hour into the movie.

I don't like making bad reviews. It makes me feel bad for the actors and crew involved, and I believe they meant well. But, as a die-hard Harry Potter fan, I felt even worst watching this movie! Insulted, even!The question that popped on my head every 5 minutes of film was "Is this what would happen if Michael Bay would direct something HP related?". The answer is "Yes.", sadly. It did take me a lot of time to finally watch this, I watched on 18th of May, 2018. Why? Well, I did have a bad vibe about it. And damn, I was right.It´s a Fantastic Show of CGI! And nothing but that! It´s like 98% of the movie is just CGI, and there are half a dozen characters around. And neither of them are important at all. The so called "fantastic beasts" are irrelevant! Newt is irrelevant. All of them, all of that, all is irrelevant. It has no connection to the Harry Potter world at all. They just hold wands (and just sometimes), and occasionally cast a spell.The fantastic beasts appear for brief moments, short minutes, and are useless! New has an ultra-magical suitcase that holds an entire city inside, and that city is filled with fantastically useless animals. And they show up for mere moments. But the deal is, they didn´t even have to show up. They don´t matter. At all! It seems like those scenes are just for the CGI crew to show-off, "Look what I can do now!", and they created scenarios inside Newt´s bag, and showed some huge and crazy-looking animals. And that´s it!Oh, and the "Michael Bay" touch: destruction, explosions and mayhem throughout 1920's New York City. I mean, half the city was wrecked, but at the end of the movie, the "American Bureau for Magic" (or whatever, I forgot the name, it's also useless!) fixed everything in a matter of minutes. So, if they could do all that, why were they worried in the first place? The CGI scenes are way too long, too heavy and unnecessary! Newt's beasts are useless, the wands are useless, the whole damn movie is pointless!The house-elves. Oh, damn. Well, it seems America is indeed the Land of the Free, because American house-elves were already free and rich by the year 1926! Wow, call that progress! However, wizards still lived in fear of muggles (sorry, No-Maj), and hid from view.It's not a Harry Potter World movie. Wizards, wands, the half a dozen spells that were cast, it could all be removed, and wouldn´t be missed. Actually, there's no plot at all, no character's depth, no meaning to anything. It's a crazy made-up story about Grindelwald that we were never told before. Maybe because it's stupid and pointless. It's like things happen at random, people are lost among the wreckage of a city inhabited by idiots (both wizards and normal folk), and nothing matters.There´s the cute friendship and love thing going on with the 4 main characters. Of course, there's gotta be a cute message. But the Aurors also killed a kid at the end, so that's nasty! Grindelwald was disguised as an Auror and nobody noticed. Tina was clumsy and dumb, and was also an Auror. Her sister read everyone's minds at all times, and never knew what to do. Kowalski, the muggle, accepted the whole magic world all too easily. Newt was also dumb, way too weird and stupid. I mean, the guy destroyed half a city just to get his pets back. Of course, to hell with civilization, let me just get my cute pets back, because humans are evil! Yeah, makes total sense, Mr. Old-School-PETA-soldier! And sure, his beloved pet saves the city (or the world?) at the end, when Newt reveals he had a special potion his big bird could use to fix everything. Completely believable. Yes, it is! It happen to me last month too! And, poor Mr. Grindelwald was also lost and confused in all that. The most powerful dark wizard (in my opinion, even greater thatn Voldemort) was completely lost. And, at the end, he got his derrièr kicked by Newt, who, I've no idea why, decided to cast a spell called "Revelio". I mean, why did he do that? To bring about the movie climax? Sure. But why? What was he suspecting?It´s all stupid and pointless! An insult to HP fans! I got really angry and disappointed at Rowling. And, surprise surprise, it'll be a 5 movie thing! Because, sure, let's make things worse! Money!I's a ridiculous movie! There's nothing related to HP world. The wands and spells are useless. The beasts are useless. No plot, no story, useless characters. And way too heavy on CGI!It's the not-so-secret love child of Michael Bay and J. J. Abrahams after surviving a weekend at aunt Rowling's. when she was on drugs!If you love the HP world, if you're a fan, stay clear from this! Seriously!

My wife was adamant that I should see this in the theatre. Thankfully I didn't. Same old Rubbish, Huge bunch of CGI, no script, some really bad acting (Eddie Redmanye is plain awful which is shocking). Random beasts jumping from here to there, hocus focus and blah blah. In keeping with the poor quality of the harry potter movies this one is a wastage of 2.5 hours. PS My wife slept off half way :(