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I don't know what to say to the criticisms, because they are definitely all valid and I see them and in most cases agree with them, but I still had a pretty damn enjoyable time
This movie was the most fun I have had in the theater so far.
Congratulations [DIRECTOR], you are the most frustrating filmmaker working today. I used to be able to write you off as an overrated and untalented filmmaker – no more. [MOVIE] is a technical marvel. This film is beautiful in a way that surpasses everything that [DIRECTOR] had done to date… combined… including [PREVIOUS MOVIE]! Unfortunately, like every film he has made, the story is flat, the pacing is poor and many of the emotional moments just seem to hit the wrong note. So the story unfolds though too many coincidences and there are some action scenes including one in Diagon Alley!! There are some great references to John Landis and Jim Henson and some overly overt ones to Universal creatures (Frank specifically). There is a love story that never feels right and a bunch of relationships that are fairly unbelievable. On the other hand the action scenes are nearly perfect as is one scene in the middle of the film where [] and [] break into song! The ancillary creatures are stunningly rendered (as the fantasy world of [] was) and final battle is a seamless blend of CG and live action that isn’t edited to death. I wanted to like this film, I really did, but [DIRECTOR] once again fails to connect as a storyteller. Throughout the film he either coaxes the wrong notes out of his actors or edits the wrong takes into the film. It must be all that time spent in his own imagination that gets in the way of him getting the human aspect of his films right. [DIRECTOR] is an utterly hopeless filmmaker who needs to be kicked out of the director’s chair and restricted to a creature house so that we can all enjoy his visual tour de force stylistics without sitting through his failed attempts to hang them on his lackluster scripts. Leapfrog George Lucas on the way.