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A new installment in the Harry Potter Franchise. I haven't even seen Harry Potter 7 and 7.2, but luckily, this is set long before that, in America and is actually it's own story (with some casual namedrops on the way).
I really didn't know anything about this movie other than Eddie Redmayne being in it, and I think that helped my enjoyment. I'm really happy that for once we get to follow powerful wizards and don't have to see people learning how to magic.
I watched the German dubbed version in cinema, so I can't say that much about the acting (I heard Colin Farrell does an American accent?), but one character stood really out to me, especially because I didn't recognize the face at all. It was Credence, a boy living with his anti-magic mother. He is played by Ezra Miller, who was great in everything I've seen him in, and in this he blew it out of the park. I did not realize it was him until I read the credits. But also I can't say anyone was standout bad.
That being said, most characters were very flat, one-dimensional. I think they tried having one character shockingly turn to the dark side, but it was telegraphed, I knew it basically right away.
To be honest, most of this movie was predictable. And not in the "of course you know the good guy is going to win" kind of way. But there are more than one scene that I knew how it would end the minute it started.
The visuals were great. Let's be real, we're now at a point with CGI where these movies become even more fun, they can make every fantastic beast we can imagine. The title is half true. We get to see a lot of fantastic beasts, but only for a few we get a rough area where we can find them. The beasts were looking awesome, and were pretty inventive.
My cinema only showed this movie in 3D and it is one of the annoying 3D movies. There are many scenes that took me out of the movie, because they had those little bug things fly up to you and look you right in the face. I'm still waiting for that trope to die out. 3D should be used subtle and as an enhancement, but this is one of the occasions where the movie will be even more annoying when watched in 2D, because then you get these scenes just in there for the cool 3D effect, but without the cool 3D effect.
Even though I just spent a few paragraphs bashing the movie I still enjoyed it. I had a great time in the cinema, the visuals were amazing in 3D, and I really enjoy that they expand on the universe. Like I said in the beginning, I really like getting to explore this universe with a experienced magician now instead of a young boy never leaving London and never using any magic. I'm rating this movie 3.5 out of 5 stars and a like. If you like the Harry Potter universe, you will like this movie.
