Reviews

Let me start by saying that I am a huge Harry Potter fan. I love the books and the movies. I would consider myself a "Potterhead". While this movie is entertaining, it lacks the layered complexity of the Harry Potter story. The reason why "Harry Potter" was (and still is) so immensely popular was because Harry himself follows the classic hero's journey. His parents died at the hands of a monster, his Aunt and Uncle mistreat him terribly, and he seems to have everything stacked against him. We, the readers and viewers, are emotionally invested in Harry. I found it hard to invest my emotion in Newt Scamander. The story line is very surface and while the movie is well done and I will watch the other movies in the series, I feel myself and other truly passionate Harry Potter fans just won't have the same reaction to the Fantastic Beasts movies and the characters and we did with the magical world of Harry Potter.

I am mostly a Game of Thrones/Tudors/Rome type of television watcher, but I happened to catch an episode of this last week and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. I found it to be funny, entertaining, and somewhat informative. I found myself, as well as my husband, laughing robustly several times during the episode. The chemistry of the 5 stars works very well. This is so much better than most of the less than stellar shows on the major networks. (Bachelor, Big Brother, etc.) I hope the network gives this show another season or 2. Since catching the episode last week, I have watched a few more of them and I have to say I have found them all equally entertaining.