Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - I'm such a black sheep

So who else has seen this? I feel like I was one of the last ones. I'll try to make this spoiler-free, but I make no guarantees. 

By now we should all know what this is about. Newt Scamander goes to NYC and some of his beasts get loose. At the same time, attacks are happening all over the city. Blah blah blah you know how it goes.

So I will start with what I loved. Eddie Redmayne for one. He's just wonderful lol. Colin Farrell was excellent, and I almost wish he were in the original movies. It was great being back in the wizarding world and seeing a whole new side--the American side. The only glimpse we ever got in any of the books was (I think) a group of Americans walking by Harry during the Tri-Wizard tournament, so it's nice to get to know how more of the word does magic. The graphics were excellent as was the score. My main issues I had were with the plot.

So let's go there. The biggest problem I had with Fantastic Beasts was how cheesy it was. Even in the early Harry Potter books and movies where the characters are all so young, it didn't feel quite as campy and corny. Sure, they had their amusing moments, but this felt like it was trying to lighten up everything with a joke. An example is when Newt's bowtruckle is mad at him and sticks its tongue out at him. A lot of these parts just seemed unnecessary and made the mood of the film far less serious.

My next issue has to do with its predictability. There are two main twists throughout the film (if you can call them that), but I found them so glaringly obvious, I had seen one of them coming from the very first scene of the movie. 

The final thing I had trouble with was [possible spoiler] ------- the romance. I love romance in my books, but I've never really liked the ones in the wizarding world (Sorry Jo). To me, this fit in exactly with how I felt about the ones in the original story--contrived and forced. 

I went to see this with my friend, and he really liked it. He told me he actually wasn't a big fan of any of the original movies (hilarious since we went to a bunch of midnight openings together). So if you're on the fence about seeing it, still definitely try it. You may love it.

As for me? Eh, it was enjoyable, but I nowhere near loved it. I'll want to see the next one when it comes out. But at this moment I wouldn't go see it again or buy the movie whenever it's released.