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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Reveiw

What I liked: For a movie based on what is in essence a fictional encyclopedia, this movie has a surprising amount of plot. Not great plot, but more than I usually get from reading an alphabetical reference book. I liked the dopey sidekick, his facial expressions were great and he was the only one who acknowledged that what happening on screen was not actually normal. I liked that the president led the tiny army of US wizards to their tiny battle in a subway. So as military victories go, this was not one for the history books, for many reasons. But it did lend more meaning to the phrase Commander in Chief. I felt like Dr Who was once again a bow tie wearing socially awkward guy who lives in a box that is bigger on the inside. Some of the creatures were cool but the CGI didn't quite make them alive. I liked the sloth monkey, I don't really know who it was or what it was doing but I would support a slothmonkey planet of the apes crossover. I like that the guy from SWAT has finally moved up the ranks to be head of a security agency. He was cooler when he had a lower rank but I bet the promotion came with a raise.

What I didn't: There are many things to dislike about the movie beginning with the plot and extending to the world. Apparently, the wizarding world in the UK is a magical place with a few bad guys whose greatest ambition is taking over a high school. In the US we find a corrupt state, devoid of color, featuring execution without trail and apparently without consequences. There are numerous problematically unethical situations which go unresolved in what can at best be attributed to poorly veiled awkward social commentary or to just bad writing. All of the plans were bad. The good guys I think had no plan at all besides wander around getting into trouble. The bad guys all had very impractical plans that they didn't think through very well. Of all the creatures the two best were the magical platypus and the friendly stick creature. Really platypuses are bizarrely magical on their own and don't need additional odd abilities and the stick creature was a less cute, less entertaining baby Groot.

Who should watch this? Anyone on an airplane for a long time.

Would I watch it again? No and not interested in the franchise installments.
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