Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald review

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.