It is hard to believe that it has been 5 years since the release of the eighth and final Harry Potter film. People from my generation has had this Wizarding franchise as an integral part of their childhood, right the way through to the beginning of adult life.

Now, we have the beginning of another possible franchise within this world. My initial emotions was of high excitement as I really enjoyed all the Harry Potter films. But when I heard about them stretching it out to five films, I was not sure if it would be anywhere near as consistently good as Potter. It is clear to see that they are only doing this as this is the only successful franchise Warner Bros has at the moment, and they need to make more as it still sells.

Now that I have seen it, I have to admit I was disappointed for the most part. But don't worry, I still thought it was good, but only just.

I liked it that you don't need to have seen the previous Harry Potter films to understand what's going on. Yes, there are some small hints and nods for the fans to look out for. But overall, it is most definitely a stand alone feature. I appreciated that they did not rely on fan service for us to like it. I think all of that is due to J.K Rowling being the head writer for this film, and her power will have shunned any interference from various studio executives away.
But as much as I am glad to see Rowling involved in the writing. You can see her lack of experience when it comes to writing for movies. It did feel like a book writer was writing a film for the first time.

Eddie Redmayne was solid overall. He kept my interest and carried the movie well. By the end of it, a part of me thought of him as more of Doctor Who, particularly Matt Smith's version.
Katherine Waterstone's character was strange. While her backstory got me interested, her performance was a mixed bag. I liked her intentions throughout the film, but her execution in the performance felt jumpy. At times it moved the story a long nicely, but there were also long gaps of silence in the scenes she was in. It felt quite awkward and out of place.
I liked Colin Farrell's performance. I am a fan of his, and he was certainly the character I wanted to know more about. I also found enjoyment from Alison Sudol's role in this film. She was a nice addition to the team and I would like to see her in future films.
As for Dan Fogler, he was solid and joyful at times in his role as the comedic relief. His comedy moments were a mixed bag for me. Some worked (including one very funny moment), the rest was weak. But thankfully he was not annoying at all. I would be happy if we saw him again in future films.
Ezra Miller was creepy and intense. But I was struggling to be interested by him and see what he was supposed to be in this film. There was a nice surprise in the form of Ron Perlman, who made a short appearance.

Sadly, there are more negatives or frustrations than positives. The pacing was really off-putting and my biggest problem with the film. It was certainly not a smooth and flowing ride and more of a constant stalling instead. If it was tighter, then I think we would be talking about a more enjoyable feature that could praise more than criticize. I think maybe that there were two different films in this, and neither could go hand-in-hand to make it an enjoyable or highly memorable feature.
With the pacing feeling mainly slow, it made the duration feel long. I reckon I could have taken off about 20 minutes.

I feel like I'm giving this film some stick. So I will mention the good stuff and there is a fair amount of it. I like the setting of it. It certainly felt like I was transported to 1920's New York. I really liked the ideas and I could see real potential in the characters for future films.
I loved the designs of the creatures, and some of them managed to steal the show many times during the film. However after seeing it, there are some scary similarities to Pokemon. It's not completely identical, just some parts of it are similar. It will be interesting to see how many other people see that as well.
The visual effects was good overall. There is certainly much more CGI then in the Harry Potter films. Whether that is seen as a negative, that is open for debate.

In the end, the movie ended up being kind of flat. But with that in mind, I still enjoyed enough of it to give it a pass. It is certainly not a bad film. But the lack of emotional weight and coherence won't make this one of the more memorable films of this year. I was struggling to see what the priority story-line was. But I still came out of the film mildly pleased.

For anyone going with young kids, I don't think it's one for them (unless they could handle ALL the Harry Potter films). I honestly think their attention span won't last.

I will say though for a ninth film in a franchise, I am impressed that they are all good at worst. If I had to rank it with the Harry Potter films it would be near the bottom, or possibly at the very bottom.
I am not sure if they could carry this on for four more films as initially planned by the studio. Nevertheless, I remain excited for where they could potentially go. But I think I will set my standards a little lower for the next installment.

Rating: 7/10