Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Ezra Miller, Zoe Kravitz, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Callum Turner
Directed by: David Yates
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
2018

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) agrees to help Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) track down dangerous wizard Grindelwald (Johnny Depp).

Review:
Tim: I feel like much of the world has these Fantastic Beasts movies wrong. By all accounts, the first movie starring Newt Scamander received generally positive reviews. I have no idea why, because it was a messy, boring film that did nothing much but tarnish the legacy of the J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World. I don't know why people enjoyed that bloated affair. I was not looking forward to this sequel. While Fantastic Beats: The Crimes of Grindelwald is again a disappointing film, I felt like it was slightly better than the previous movie. Of course, the rest of the world gave this movie significantly worse reviews. Who the heck knows? I still believe this represents a tiny uptick from the first movie, but neither is very good at all.

I believe this movie is slightly better than the last one simply because we have some better actors, it felt like some plot movement, and slightly more connection to the Wizarding World from the Harry Potter movies. The plot as a whole is still a convoluted mess. We see all these characters and none of them are given enough time to fully establish them. Two movies in, I'm still not entirely sure why I should care about Newt. I have no idea of the name of Katherine Waterston's character. I thought she was supposed to be the female lead, but I'm struggling to remember what she did of worth in this film. Zoe Kravitz had a much bigger role and was actually fairly compelling in this film. I'm not exactly faulting Eddie Redmayne's performance, although to be fair, I've never really liked it. I have almost no emotional connection with him, while I loved Harry, Ron, and Hermione (and to clarify, I never read the books. So my emotional attachment was purely from the movies). The characters in this budding franchise aren't especially compelling. They aren't memorable and it's hard to care about them.

I'm trying to remember the plot of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them to compare it with this film but I honestly am struggling to remember. I know there were scenes of the titular fantastic beasts. I know Johnny Depp was revealed at the end. But why it mattered, what happened- it's all lost in the fog of time. The big issue is that the same thing is happening with The Crimes of Grindelwald. I remember moments from the film, but if you asked to explain the larger plot and why it mattered, I would struggle to do so. That is a direct result of a poor script and an unfocused film. The Harry Potter movies were so good primarily because of the source material. This franchise doesn't have that luxury and the quality of the films has greatly diminished as a result.

I will say that I very much enjoyed the performance of Jude Law as Dumbledore. It helped immensely to have a character that we cared about from the previous franchise. Law is a good actor and he obviously has fun with this role. I wish he had more screen time, but I greatly valued the time we got with him. He was much more compelling than almost every single other character from the Fantastic Beasts films. His presence was a welcome one and he made the movie better. I also enjoyed Johnny Depp as Grindelwald. He might not have been great (and Depp's antics on and off screen have made him an actor that bothers me now), but he is talented. He gave a more compelling performance than the forgettable other actors. The movie benefits greatly from Depp and Law and that's a big reason I liked this movie more.

The supporting cast outside of these two is pretty bleak. Dan Fogler again is the standout, bringing a great deal of energy and humor to the film. He felt slightly reigned in here, which was a positive development. As I mentioned, Kravitz was pretty good. Ezra Miller was fine, but it felt like he didn't get to do much here. Callum Turner bored me to tears. I simply checked out whenever he had anything to do. The rest of the supporting cast was pretty forgettable as well.

The movie itself gives us a lot of visuals, but they weren't all that interesting. Sure, it's fun to see some of the fantastic beasts depicted, but it feels like the movie relies too heavily on these visuals effects. The wizard battle at the end was definitely a highlight, but that doesn't help the messy story surrounding it.

After surprisingly enjoying all the Harry Potter movies, I continue to be disappointed by this extension of the Wizarding World. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald might be slightly better than the previous movie, but it doesn't give me much hope for future movies. The characters aren't interesting, the story is a mess. I have very little interest in the continuing adventures of Newt and his forgettable friends. One positive thing is this movie did $75 million less than the first one at the domestic box office. I believe that's a perfect illustration that other people are viewing these movies as a disappointment. My hope is that somebody takes notice and they make some big changes to the third movie. I don't have much faith that they could completely turn this franchise around, but it would be nice to actually enjoy one of these movies.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Harry Potter movies