Hats have to come off here to Eddie Redmayne. I reckon he must have spent virtually all of the filming days staring at a green screen reacting to CGI. That's my problem with this. Though set in a fantasy world, there's nothing remotely authentic about it. Not his "Newt Scamander" character, nor the constantly changing scenarios that are busily trying to engage our eyes without bothering with our brains. "Newt" arrives from Britain into the USA with a magical suitcase full of creatures that is the target of the dastardly "Grindelwald" (a few fleeting appearances from Johnny Depp). When it is stolen and some of the beasties escape, it looks like a bad time to be insuring the properties of New York's Fifth Avenue and with all hell breaking loose, "Newt" and his new muggle friend "Jacob" (Dan Fogler) to round them all up and thwart a plan that will bring the wizarding world to the brink chaos. There's no denying that the film looks great, with astonishing attention to detail and an impressive imagination behind the design of mystical creatures and their animated visual effects. The thing has no soul, though. Unlike with her earlier "Potter" characters, JK Rowling hasn't really created anyone here about whom I really cared. There are some fun critters - the curious platypus and their own mini version of "Groot", but Redmayne just seems to be rushing around reacting all the time, without us really getting to know him or much about his mission. Colin Farrell, Ezra Miller and Depp suffer likewise, with little effort put into imbuing them with much persona. Even the magic itself seems sterile and derivative. It's not terrible, it's more a sort of "so what" that you just know will spawn loads of predicable sequels and "Newt" and "Grindelwald" square up for a battle royal.

Remarkably lacklustre for a film involving magical creatures. <em>'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'</em> underwhelmed me, in short. At no moment across the 130 or so minute run time was I ever invested or drawn into the story or the characters. I didn't feel any good performances from the cast either. Dan Fogler sticks out in my memory most, though the rest are forgettable. The special effects are also not to the level I was expecting; that's not to say that they are bad and I'm not certain what I was indeed anticipating from them, but I just found 'em to be meh - nothing blew me away. Which is a vibe that I got from the whole film unfortunately. Hopefully <em>'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald'</em> does more for me.

**Well, everything's in the title itself, you watch it only to confirm.** I don't want to be so negative like the film critics, but this is a big disappointment for me watching being a film fanatic. I don't think anyone who loved 'Harry Potter' film series would thumb this new beginning. This is not like 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Hobbit' from the same universe, but different trilogies. I was excited for something like that, as a concept wise, for the fresh tale from from the fresh characters in the same universe. I don't know about the book version, but the film did not click for me. It had a bunch of nice characters, and to set in the Harry Potter universe, really it should have been a masterpiece. The major drawback was the story. There's nothing to appreciate the screenplay. It's about some creatures from the magical world got out in the human world, just like 'Jumanji'. So our hero struggles to recapture them. Meanwhile, some others too involved in and the reason will be revealed in the final stage. Nice casting and great visuals. I won't point out its director's fault, because he has done his duty very well. He's also will be the man behind the rest of the sequels. I think it deserved the Oscars for the costume design. Not a bad film, particularly for the kids. Comparing it with the Harry Potter franchise makes it a worst film, but independently it is an okay film. So the initiation was average, but I'm still expecting the follow ups to be much better. _5/10_