T. W. Bell

Do yourself a favour, stop listening to the 'critics' and go see this movie! It's brilliant, start to finish, seriously! Is it a perfect film? Of course not. It has some strange cameos & super convenient moments, as most modern films do. But it is miles ahead of what 'critics' are claiming. Firstly, the plot is ridiculously easy to follow. I haven't a clue how anyone could be confused by it. Unless you were on your phone the entire time OR are super slow, it is so easy to understand & honestly fun to watch. Secondly, it's action sequences are stellar, and beautifully shot. This is hands down the single most beautiful "Harry Potter" movie, bar none. Gorgeous! As far as casting goes, it's phenomenal as well. Eddie Redmayne shines once again as Newt Scamander. As does the rest of the original four, especially Allison Sudol, who brings a powerful nuance to Queenie, that based on other reviews, seems quite lost on most! Jude Law makes a great young Dumbledore, very excited to see how his version of Dumbledore grows into the previous versions we all know & love. The true star of this movie though, is Johnny Depp. Whatever you think of him off screen, he crushes this role! Grindelwald is dark, scary, but also compelling, charismatic and complex. They do an outstanding job of making you understand why he is rising to power & why certain characters in this universe could join his cause. As I previously stated, it's not perfect; however. There is at least one character who is wasted, another who seems to be there just to drop a name & another who could easily be dropped altogether & nobody would likely miss them. It also does drag (a bit) here & there, but truthfully, it doesn't really hurt the movie, because the rest is more than enough to make up for it. Honestly, I feel most people hated this because it didn't go the way they wanted it too, and that's sad, because this is a truthfully brilliant movie, and deserves es a far better 'rating' than what it currently has. I throughly enjoyed it and very much look forward to seeing what the rest of the series has to offer! 4.5/5