This fantastic beasts movie? It's not good.
The fantastic beasts series is an extremely rocky franchise, with a decent starting point and a sequel that didn't quite meet expectations. The biggest fault of the series is that it's plot is extraordinarily weak due to its immense scope and scale that it tries to do justice to but hasn't been fully fleshed out. However, both always managed to remain watchable because of it's solid acting performances and it's dazzling visuals that at least kept you entertained for a couple hours. Unfortunately, this film is a disaster from start to finish and is completely devoid of good characters, fun dialogue, a cohesive plot, or any creativity in its story and the telling of said story. Let's start with some positives, though: the technical team SNAPPED on this one. The magic is mind blowing, and some of the shots in this film are simply beautiful. It all goes downhill from there, however. The acting is mediocre to downright bad. The best performances came from Mads Mikkelsen as Gellert Grindlewald and Eddie Redmayne in the lead role as Newt Scamander, but both are let down by an awful script which can't find anything clever or meaningful to say. The plot is muddled and confused, packed with so much noise and subplots that the viewer can't follow at all, as the film tries to get so much done while half baking everything. It shunts its most interesting characters to the side in favor of pointless scenes that distract from the main plot for seemingly no reason, and for scenes that could've been fleshed out so much more, the writing skips over that in favor of so called "wise words" that are utterly meaningless. There are some moments in the film the feel so out of left field that they beg for further explanation but are simply brushed over, leaving the viewer wondering exactly what just happened. Hell, now my review is also all over the place, because this movie is so bad that I just don't know where to go from here!
In short, nothing from this film is memorable in any positive way. The entire thing seems like a poor fanfiction that wasn't well researched. The film is so disappointing because it is so forgettable, and is a perfect example of why movies today are infinitely inferior to those of the past: instead of telling good stories, studios are flooding money into a milked out franchise and forcing it to produce something, and that something is always disappointing. The Secrets of Dumbledore is the latest in the Hollywood conveyor belt of sequels and reboots, and it lacks any creativity or cleverness to justify its existence. If a fourth Fantastic Beasts film is made, I will not be watching it. That's all I've got, if you are interested in the film, go ahead and watch it. I hope you find it more enjoyable than I did.
The fantastic beasts series is an extremely rocky franchise, with a decent starting point and a sequel that didn't quite meet expectations. The biggest fault of the series is that it's plot is extraordinarily weak due to its immense scope and scale that it tries to do justice to but hasn't been fully fleshed out. However, both always managed to remain watchable because of it's solid acting performances and it's dazzling visuals that at least kept you entertained for a couple hours. Unfortunately, this film is a disaster from start to finish and is completely devoid of good characters, fun dialogue, a cohesive plot, or any creativity in its story and the telling of said story. Let's start with some positives, though: the technical team SNAPPED on this one. The magic is mind blowing, and some of the shots in this film are simply beautiful. It all goes downhill from there, however. The acting is mediocre to downright bad. The best performances came from Mads Mikkelsen as Gellert Grindlewald and Eddie Redmayne in the lead role as Newt Scamander, but both are let down by an awful script which can't find anything clever or meaningful to say. The plot is muddled and confused, packed with so much noise and subplots that the viewer can't follow at all, as the film tries to get so much done while half baking everything. It shunts its most interesting characters to the side in favor of pointless scenes that distract from the main plot for seemingly no reason, and for scenes that could've been fleshed out so much more, the writing skips over that in favor of so called "wise words" that are utterly meaningless. There are some moments in the film the feel so out of left field that they beg for further explanation but are simply brushed over, leaving the viewer wondering exactly what just happened. Hell, now my review is also all over the place, because this movie is so bad that I just don't know where to go from here!
In short, nothing from this film is memorable in any positive way. The entire thing seems like a poor fanfiction that wasn't well researched. The film is so disappointing because it is so forgettable, and is a perfect example of why movies today are infinitely inferior to those of the past: instead of telling good stories, studios are flooding money into a milked out franchise and forcing it to produce something, and that something is always disappointing. The Secrets of Dumbledore is the latest in the Hollywood conveyor belt of sequels and reboots, and it lacks any creativity or cleverness to justify its existence. If a fourth Fantastic Beasts film is made, I will not be watching it. That's all I've got, if you are interested in the film, go ahead and watch it. I hope you find it more enjoyable than I did.