Review of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) by Matthew D — 28 Nov 2018

A muddled magic mystery with atrocious writing.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) is an embarrassing mess and one of the very worst Harry Potter films. It's hard to describe what went wrong with this movie as its plot is so convoluted and contrived. I will try to be brief. I should state that I at least like every Harry Potter film and I did love the first Fantastic Beasts. The Crimes of Grindelwald is perhaps the most disappointing movie of 2018 for me.

I will start with the few positive aspects to The Crimes of Grindelwald. Eddie Redmayne continues to charm with his quirky hero Newt Scamander. He remains as the only character I care about because he is the only person that seems to do the right thing. Redmayne does a lot of subtle body and voice acting even with the subpar script he is forced to work with from J.K. Rowling, but I'll get to her later. I will also mention that I appreciate Katherine Waterston as Tina Goldstein. I like her character, but she only appears around halfway through the movie. She is trying her best to be interested in her intriguing romance with Newt, but Waterston is not allowed enough lines to get that same warmth from the first film back here again.

Jude Law and Johnny Depp are the pleasant surprises I got from Fantastic Beasts' sequel. Law is utterly charming and suave as a young Albus Dumbledore. His casual and kindly manner feels natural to the character. I just wish there were more of him!

Similarly, Johnny Depp's Gellert Grindelwald is fascinating. Depp plays his ultra serious and reserved so that you may believe people would follow his wizard fascism. He is not as intimidating as Voldermort from Harry Potter, but his fierce blue flame magic towards the end is fantastic. I really hope Depp just gets to do more as this movie relegates his presence to mostly speaking about morals and ethics. His final propaganda monologue is phenomenal as Depp delivers it with a concerned manipulation of the present crowd held in suspense.

Alright, now for the problems with The Crimes of Grindelwald. Director David Yates did not crunch down the script, so he essentially adapted a full screenplay with about 10 sub plots too many. The story is so confusing for the majority of the movie. It is around 30 minutes too long and quite slow. The sheer volume of shaky camera work is embarrassing for a movie of this size and budget. The CGI ranges from wondrous magic blasts, flames, and disappearing wizards to middling creatures and goofy transparent edits. The main problem I had with Yates' direction was that most scenes relied on oddly zoomed in closeups. If the scenes were shots a little farther away, you might have been able to see what was going on at any given point.

By far, the weakest elements of The Crimes of Grindelwald come from the incompetent writer J.K. Rowling who ranges from endless unresolved side stories, multiple underdeveloped characters, and inconsistencies with her own brand and story from the first Fantastic Beasts.

For example, Jacob and Queenie are relentlessly unfunny without any of the sweet charm from the first Fantastic Beasts. Queenie's change of heart is so sudden and clumsy that all of their scenes are awkward distractions to the main plot.

Furthermore, the romance between Newt and Tina is hardly mentioned, but merely alluded to, instead of developing them into a believable couple.

Likewise, the grossly underdeveloped and nearly hidden homosexual subplot between Dumbledore and Grindelwald is so contrived. It's mentioned, but not shown other than in the reflection of a mirror. It felt less like Rowling extending a friendly hand in solidarity to the LGBTQ community, but rather using this relationship for extra cash from their pockets. Their relationship reads pretty badly as it is never even stating as anything other than "more close than brothers.".

I was infuriated that Credence Barebone was brought back to life in a single sentence of the script with no more explanation other than, "he survived" being blown up in the first movie. Ezra Miller tries so hard to play Credence as broken and hurt, but he just looks like he's slouching instead. Claudia Kim is lovely as Nagini, but gets to do absolutely nothing throughout the entire movie other than appear as fan service for Rowling's cult fan-base.

I just do not even want to think about how dumb and basic this movie is to be honest. I wanted it to be fun or compelling like Fantastic Beasts, but it never reached such heights. What a ridiculous mess.