Review of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) by Pamela Y — 16 Nov 2018

How said this turned out to be a hot mess. Very few in the audience who did not see the first FB will understand the plot. Even those of us who did will have trouble following, or caring about plot. FB2 introduces new characters who will obviously play important roles in FB3, but so many character development scenes muddle what should be the intention of this or any movie: advance the story.

One problem is that the most charismatic character in this franchise, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) has little to do but stumble through the film as a befuddled, love-sick creature-lover. He is lost in the sea of new characters.

The special effects are impressive but a better script and more cohesive directing would have served this movie better.