I avoided spoilers on this film for the first few days of its release because I was unable to see it until the following Sunday. However, what I was not able to avoid were the headlines showing up in my news feeds about several people not liking the film or saying that it wasn’t “Harry Potter” enough. I still allowed myself to go into the theater with an open mind after refusing to actually read any of those articles until I could make my own judgement. The verdict? I don’t know what some of the other reviewers are talking about! I absolutely LOVED it, but to each their own.

My initial reaction upon walking out of the theater was that I may have actually liked it more than the first one… followed by wondering if others with a negative reaction had watched the same movie. In my opinion the Wizarding World is a universe akin to the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and therefore has multiple characters in its franchise. It is not all about Captain America or Iron-man, it gives the limelight to various other characters as well. So coming into Fantastic Beasts I never expected it to be just like Harry Potter and I don’t think that others should look at it that way either. Its a prequel series with new characters in a different time line and different locations. I think the characters are well developed despite the fact that some get more screen-time in Fantastic Beasts than they do in Grindelwald.

I feel as though some people forget that we are only on number two of a five part series and that the plot is going to have to be spread out. I will say that after watching the latest film it feels like this could probably be wrapped up as a trilogy but I’m interested in seeing where J.K. Rowling is going with this. I don’t want to spoil the movie for anyone so I’ll spare any intricate details since its only been out for a little over a week. But I think that you should go into it with an open mind and just enjoy it for what it is without thinking of it as something that has to tie into Harry Potter versus the Wizarding World as a whole.