Review of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) by Richard W — 19 Nov 2018

The new chapter in the Fantastic Beasts story gets a pass, not from being a good film so much as the actors willing you to enjoy yourself in-spite of a story that falls flat. Rowling really needs a second eye on the script as she is struggling to make sense of the ever expanding wizarding world.

Where she had a command of the narrative in the books, the screenplay narrative is proving a bit more challenging for her to solely pull off. Beyond the story issues, we get far less Dumbledore and Grindelwald than what the trailers and title promise the fans.

We mostly get a lot of introductions to new characters and how they interconnect to the story, which can make for a lot of dead air time. I will reserve absolute final judgement on this entry once I have a chance at multiple viewings when it hits disk.

However, as it stand today, it just barely gets a recommendation.