Review of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) by Dukejon — 27 Dec 2018

The first 20 minutes was the best of any Harry Potter film I've ever seen. Dark and exciting, it's a shame the rest of the movie didn't stand up to this. The movie is long, boring in long stretches, with a convoluted plot and too many characters.

The CGI looks great but it's overdone - you feel as though you're being led from one over the top set piece to the next. I'm not crazy about the Harry Potter universe (unlike the people I went with) so a lot of what went on was very confusing.

This isn't the film to see if you're not familiar with the franchise. Johnny Depp was ok as the villian... though he never seemed to do anything particularly villainous. The best part was when they went back to Hogwarts.

Above all, a movie should stand on its own two feet, it shouldn't exist simply to set up the next movie in the series.