FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF
GRINDELWALD:
NOT MUCH MAGIC THIS TIME AROUND!
By Nico
Beland
Movie
Review: ** out of 4
WARNER
BROS. PICTURES
A
dark and powerful wizard is upon us in Fantastic
Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World returns in Fantastic
Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the second installment of the Fantastic Beasts spin-off series and sequel
to 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to
Find Them. The first Fantastic Beasts
film I’ll admit is pretty solid even if it never quite lived up to the Harry Potter franchise, as a closer journey
into the Wizarding World and a
prequel showing events that took place before “The Boy who Lived” it was an
exciting and nostalgic return to the series.
It’s arguably an unnecessary
continuation of the franchise and nothing could top the charm of Harry Potter,
Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, but the characters from the first Fantastic Beasts movie are likable in
their own ways, the world and creatures are still imaginative and appealing to
look at, and it had a strong story. But, much like Sony and how they want to keep ownership of the Spider-Man franchise for as long as
possible, Warner Bros. paid director,
David Yates (The Tichborne Claimant, Harry Potter 5-7.2, The Legend of Tarzan), who had previously directed the first Fantastic Beasts movie, to milk the Harry Potter franchise for all that it’s
got with Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of
Grindelwald, with Eddie Redmayne (The
Theory of Everything, The Danish Girl,
Early Man) reprising his role as
magizoologist, Newt Scamander.
Even after the backlash from fans regarding
the casting of Claudia Kim and Johnny Depp, I was interested in seeing the Fantastic Beasts story continue, I
enjoyed the first one quite a bit so clearly the second one will be just as
good right? Sorry Potter, you may have magic, but you don’t have immunity to duds
(and I’m not talking about your overweight cousin).
After the events of the first film, the powerful
dark wizard, Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp-Edward Scissorhands, Pirates
of the Caribbean franchise, Black
Mass) is being held by the Magical Congress of the United States of America
for his attack on New York City. While being transferred back to London, he is
freed by follower, Abernathy (Kevin Guthrie-Sunshine
on Leith, Sunset Song, Dunkirk) and makes his escape.
Grindelwald seeks out followers to raise
pure-blood wizards up to rule over all non-magical beings (or Muggles as they
put it). In an attempt to thwart Grindelwald’s plans, Albus Dumbledore (Jude
Law-The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain, Sherlock Holmes 1 and 2) enlists the help of former Hogwarts
student, Newt Scamander, his American No-Maj sidekick, Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler-Kung Fu Panda, The Walking Dead, Don Peyote),
and MACUSA Auror, Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston-Michael Clayton, Alien:
Covenant, mid90s), unaware of the
dangers that lie before them as our heroes are pitted into a battle where love
and loyalty is tested and lines are drawn between good and evil in an increasingly
divided world of wizards.
The film also stars Alison Sudol (Transparent, Dig, Between Us) reprising
her role as Tina’s younger sister, Queenie, Ezra Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin, The
Perks of Being a Wallflower, DC
Extended Universe) reprising his role as Credence Barebone, Zoe Kravitz (X-Men: First Class, The Divergent Series, Mad
Max: Fury Road) reprising her role as Leta Lestrange, Callum Turner (Queen and Country, Glue, War & Peace) as
Newt’s older brother, Theseus Scamander, and Claudia Kim (Marco Polo, Avengers: Age of
Ultron, The Dark Tower) as Nagini.
Overall, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald has sparks of Harry Potter nostalgia that is sure to
please die-hard fans, but compared to its far superior predecessors, it doesn’t
offer the same amount of magic. The best I can describe it is the Harry Potter equivalent of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice
where it focuses more on building a franchise rather than telling a coherent
and exciting story.
The plot is too convoluted and hard
to follow, even for a Harry Potter
movie to be invested, characters are often forgotten about after a while, and
it just raises more questions rather than provide answers to the Wizarding
World’s backstory. You can namedrop Hogwarts, Dumbledore, and Nagini as well as
throw in an Easter egg of the Sorcerer’s Stone all you want, but if you don’t
have an engaging story to back everything up, nobody cares.
Even the action sequences suck
Mudblood here, aside from the typical waving wands around while running away scenes,
the film opens with a flying carriage chase where Grindelwald kills several
MACUSA wizards who are chasing him down on broomsticks, but it’s shot too dark
to really make out what you’re seeing on-screen (Oh, and there’s lightning
striking repeatedly during this scene). This should have been an amazing and
epic sequence, but it comes off as dull and uninteresting.
Do I have anything positive to say
about this movie? Sure, the visuals and production design for the most part are
appealing to look at and the film continues to introduce more otherworldly creatures
into the Harry Potter world. Also, despite
the film falling flat, none of the acting is bad, Eddie Redmayne, Dan Fogler,
Katherine Waterston, and Alison Sudol have enjoyable chemistry together and
they make a great team, though not quite on par with the original series’
protagonists.
The two actors who steal the show
are Johnny Depp as Grindelwald and Jude Law as Dumbledore. Depp’s got nothing
on Ralph Fiennes’ portrayal of Lord Voldemort, but he retains this intimidating
and creepy persona all throughout the film and manages to ham it up whenever possible
and has a great time doing so, whereas Law clearly understood Dumbledore’s
character and portrays him in a similar way as Michael Gambon except at a
younger age.
Sadly, everything else just felt
like a two-and-a-half-hour advertisement for the rest of the Fantastic Beasts franchise and
definitely the low-point of the once critically-acclaimed Harry Potter film series. You could say the same thing about the
first Fantastic Beasts movie and how
it’s an unnecessary continuation of the franchise, but at least it still had a
strong story and likable characters to keep you enthralled.
Fantastic
Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a convoluted cash-cow of the Harry Potter series that should only be
approached by purists only. If you’re not a die-hard fan of the Harry Potter Wizarding World, it’ll just
make you wish for a spell to make it stop.
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