I really disliked this film. From memory, in the first one the "fantastic beasts" seemed to actually be important: we'd learn more about them in a kind of "Pokedex report" kind of way and it was a bit silly and full of hide from the muggles type antics.

In this one there were some "fantastic beasts" that seemed very secondary to the plot, just there, and the plot was so much about mystery and conspiracy and setting up the remaining three films (not just a third shockNwave- another three!) that there didn't seem to be much time for the characters to do anything interesting.

The muggle friend barely got to do anything you could wipe him out altogether and yet he was interesting comic foil in the first. Ezra Millar's character that everyone cared about barely got to do anything, and all that fuss about the snake woman and I don't even think she was called by name.

Plus it was grey and dark most of the time so visually pretty uniteresting too. I'm sure the chase at the start would have been a lot more fun if we could see what was happening! At least the visit to Hogwarts was kind of interesting but that was relying on affection for those other 8 films.