Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald (2018)

This Harry Potter universe expansion pack is about an older, constipated (?) Harry Potter/Doctor Who type who surrounds himself with only the most uninteresting of friends - are we really supposed to care about the irritating Queenie and her spellbound Poirot, or keep track of who is and who isn't a fullblood wizard? - and punctuating the "you can only possibly care less about all this if you've read the books" plot are belaboured cgi sequences - a Groot climbing in and out and in and out of Eddy Redmayne's pocket, a mole collecting coins, a bird, etc.. - that I presume are included as careful nods to the Potterverse or to remind you of characters who will become important again in number three, four, five -  and they are spectacular feats of animation - but here, in this decidedly unmagical, heavyhanded snorefest, these moments merely slow down an already tedious series of magic-school carry-on and pokemon creature reveals.

★☆☆☆☆

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Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them (2016)

Pokemon meets Harry Potter in this 2016 adaptation of J K Rowling's book about a Doctor Who-like 'magizoologist', who appears to be constipated, who carries creatures around in a Tardis-like suitcase - there's lots of Potterverse references to delight fans but little for anyone else to care about and just as you resign yourself to the idea the movie is simply about enjoying the spectacle of fantastic beasts running amok in New York, there comes a "big reveal" that suggests you were supposed to have paid closer attention to things afterall.

★★☆☆☆

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