Honestly this is about as good as it could get, given the current situation this franchise finds itself in.
It’s less messy than the last one and they smartly sidelined/ditched some of the more boring characters (like, where’s Nagini?).
The first 30 minutes are nothing but exposition dumps recapping the previous films.
It’s inelegant and kinda bad, but also a necessary evil given what a mess _Crimes of Grindelwald_ was.
The story is fine, it’s still a little incoherent (the beasts and Grindelwald/Dumbledore stuff doesn’t really gel together), and you can tell it’s written by a novelist, but it’s also more fun and creative than some of the previous installments.
Some of the character arcs are once again very confusing though.
The acting is solid for the most part (Dan Fogler steals the movie again, Ezra Miller sucks again) and the new additions are all good, if not great.
I always liked the directing in these movies, and while the cinematography is still good, this one in particular has a lot of that fake Hollywood sheen that’s part of the reason why the majority of blockbusters suck now.
So, not awful, but it’s also far from memorable or something I’d recommend.
Watch it on streaming, they’re probably gonna cancel this franchise anyway.

4.5/10