Review of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) by Yan T — 28 Nov 2018

I've seen this movie twice. I'm a long time Harry Potter fan, having read all the books and seen the movies, and I enjoyed the first Fantastic Beasts movie with its take on an adult Wizarding World.

I went in to Crimes of Grindelwald with no expectations because the critics scores were surprisingly low, but I walked out with my head reeling.The visuals and music were great, and most of the actors delivered solid performances.

I especially enjoyed Redmayne and Law's presence on screen. I had my doubts about Jude Law as Dumbledore, but it turns out he was perfect. As for the plot, many have stated there were too many subplots going, and as a result the main story line suffers.

That's true in many regards, but after reading the screenplay and seeing the movie again a second time, the whole experience was much more enjoyable. This whole movie was information overload, but I believe Rowling is including much of it for setting up the rest of the story to be unfolded in the next three movies.

As a standalone it suffers, but I would hesitate to give it a bad mark just because of that. The editing and pacing for sure could have used some work, but I think that fault lies more with Yates and WB moreso than Rowling.