I watched this movie tonight on RedBox and found it very disturbing and dark, especially in its treatment of children. It is much darker than any of the other Harry Potter movies. Also, its main characters are people in their late 30's (which doesn't add to the appeal for children or young adults). On top of this, it was also a boring, slow-paced, un-engaging movie until the last 15-20 minutes (which only somewhat redeemed the film), with CGI reminiscent of a bad video game. I do not have children, but if I did, I would not let them see this movie.

*SPOILERS coming* I was not necessarily intending to write this as a review with children in mind, but I am very angry with the way this movie treats children. While some of the other Harry Potter movies are dark, none of them comes close to the evil in this movie. With the exception of the 4 main characters and the various children, every character in this movie is portrayed as self-serving and evil, with the majority of violence being done to children. Let me elaborate: there is the evil "mother" character who adopts orphans and then emotionally and physically abuses them (she beats and cuts them), and forces them to distribute anti-witchcraft pamphlets. There is the evil wizard (who turns out to be Grindelwald) who also emotionally and physically abuses a teenager and acts like a pedophile (he caresses the teenage boy's face, clasps him close, physically harms him, pretends to be his "friend" in order to manipulate him, and forces him to betray his own sister). The main "dangerous creature" in this movie turns out to be literally a demon from this possessed, tortured, abused teenage boy. How does the movie avenge him? It doesn't. In fact, the female witch president of the USA kills the boy because his demon "accidentally killed a no-mag (muggle)." On top of these very dark themes, there are also inappropriate sexual moments. This film is clearly directed at adults, and not at children or teens. A female character is shown in lingerie, seductively dressing in front of two men she's just met. A disgusting and prolonged CGI scene shows what is basically a sexually-charged magical rhinoceros with a glowing red organ who spends about ten minutes trying to "relieve itself" on one of the human characters. There are other sexually suggestive moments involving men eyeing a woman's cleavage.

I also did not find any of the characters to be likable except for the Polish guy who wants to start a bakery. He is truly likable. Okay, in the last 10 minutes or so I also liked the witch Queenie, too, and I thought the way the movie ended was one of its few redeeming qualities.

Last of all--toward the beginning of the movie is a long CGI segment clearly intended to showcase all of the 'magical' CGI animals designed for this movie, but it involves poor Eddie Redmayne squawking like a bird and--I kid you not--trying to do the mating dance of a sexually charged magical male rhinoceros.

A very strange, dark movie. I only like the ending.