Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them Review: 4 Ups & 6 Downs

4. The Atrocious Editing

David Yates has never been among the strongest of directors, and one could even say the final three Potter movies succeeded in spite of rather than because of his efforts.

Unfortunately he appears to have boxed himself into some tight corners directorially on this movie, because the editing is frequently a mess.

Shots simply don't feed into each other in a spatially logical way on frequent occasion, resulting in blatant continuity errors and jarring moments of narrative disconnect.

It's as clear as it ever has been that Yates doesn't like filming action scenes, and as usual, he basically makes a meal of them here, the end result proving choppy and more of a chore to get through than anything.