12/17/2016 - Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them (2016) – 6-/10

Fun but light. Made me wonder how enthused I would have been about the HP film franchise if I hadn't read them beforehand. Never-the-less, it provides a thoroughly enjoyable, yet forgettable,e magic adventure.

The characters all seemed a little wooden and cellophane, delivering little unexpectedness or vibrancy. Worked well enough for this story, to be fair, but a little more depth and development would have really struck the right chord.

I had some lingering issues with particular facets of the HP world, but no need to nitpick on those right now. Besides, Niffler was real cute, right? The beasts were all pretty sharp, but they were the point of the film and their supremacy isn’t exactly the best thing for carrying a film.

It is a serviceable effort, but it felt meant to be cute and stir a certain demographic that I do not fall into. Effervescent, but not filling.