carterdstewart

While it is not clear from one playthrough, the plot uses the gameplay to involve the player in the story and its consequences in a remarkable way. I found it moderately enjoyable the first time through the story, and found it to be much better than I initially thought after seeing clearly how the pieces fit together.

I really enjoyed this movie. I did not care much about the first movie, but I like the way this one builds off of it. On the whole, this movie is fun to watch. The action is interesting. Most of the main characters are likeable. Grindelwald is a good bad guy, and the movie gives his followers some good reasons to follow him. They are not bad simply to be bad. And the movie looks great.

The biggest problems in the movie come from the overly complex plot. The movie attempts to tell four interrelated stories, and it nearly succeeds. But in order to work, we must care about all of the characters, and the movie does not give all of them enough screen time. It also glosses over some important points, and gives some dumb explanations for important plot points that are clearly supposed to shock us. We need to see more about Newt's relationship with his brother, and we need more time with members of the Corvus family. Most of the problems could have been addressed if the movie were a little longer, but it probably would have been better to stretch the plot of this one movie into two movies. I also found the attempts to connect this series with references to Harry Potter to be excessive. There are a few dialogue issues, as well.

This is not a great movie, but it is a very good movie. I enjoyed watching it, and I am looking forward to the rest of the series. I just hope they slow their plots down a little and take the time to actually build the relationships they expect us to recognize.