Review of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) by Kyle M — 17 Nov 2018

Unlike the singularity in installments of a book series, the "Fantastic Beasts" series expanded the in-canon textbook for the exclusive storytelling being told through the cinematic platform after experiencing both literature and after a theatrical stage play. Furthermore, the singular expansive "book" that is being divided into five films is still in progress with the writing still in development and the reading following the available pacing. With prior acknowledgement of understanding after the expositional chapter the starter film begun as with its own footing, "The Crimes of Grindelwald" casted an exhilarating spell in really pushing the story forward but the cinematic lens exposes the setbacks.

At the second-fifth of the in-progress book, the powerful dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald escaped custody and grows his cause further with gathering followers in raising pure-blood wizards to rule over all non-magical beings. Since he had a troublesome hand in help capturing Grindelwald in the previous chapter, Newt Scamander is tasked to look out for the potential dark lord by Hogwarts' Professor Albus Dumbledore while dealing with the resurfaced past.

When thinking about it afterwards, the positional flow still maintain the aforementioned expected pacing despite few distractive and suddenly-developed plot points. Comparing this particular storyline to the previous chapter not only pushes the story further but is mostly a filler while increasing the characterization for pivotal reasons in the coming chapters. Newt Scamander carries the protagonist's torch as the main focus of the prequel series, only to get mostly distracted in his romantic pursuit as the main reason over Dumbledore's assignment which coincidently aligns before interconnecting into one before the second-half. Meanwhile, Grindelwald, the antagonistic opposite, has actual plot development over the film's course.

J.K. Rowling's writing remains visionary as ever with reminiscing magic and fresh additional depth that expands and embraces across her single-handedly written Wizarding World with a sense of cultural representation, as well diversity. While her writing is at a steady pace in continuation in between the first and third chapter, it's the actual flawed direction from the unbalanced focus like director David Yates, who have directed since "Order of the Phoenix", felt the need to give the main plotline focus to the main protagonist. However, he managed to actually make this chapter exhilarating by putting in surprising thrills and radiance, as well tonal familiarity throughout the narrative, reflecting the magic from wondrous displays of the visually-created beasts and thrills to James Newton Howard's amped up score to the particularity of the production designs, namely the return to Hogwarts that will delight fans with nostalgia.

Receiving a bigger spotlight for more developmental exposure, Johnny Depp shines as the titular antagonist, proving that his controversial casting wasn't a problem while adding another prolific character in his eccentric range of acting. His actual opposite is Jude Law as the young Dumbledore who also performed perfectly but seemingly more like a young Michael Gambon than Richard Harris. As Newt's story gets dragged into the distant though inevitable bout between the two powerful wizards, Redmayne returned with his frequently experienced peculiarity, but not enough to claim the main spotlight like before.

"Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" brought the prequel series much closer to the Harry Potter portion of the wizarding history rather than a standalone that the starter proposed an impression of; and that is okay considering the understanding of this chapter's positional flow of Rowling's in-progress "book". Overall aside from the unbalanced focus with the directed exhilaration, fine performances and flawless writing, the entertainment value is moderately spellbinding. (B+).