Review- Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindlewald

Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindlewald is a very long title but essentially, it is the next film in the prequel series that has been squeezed out of the Harry Potter franchise. I think I reviewed the first one here on the blog but as a recap, I thought it was solid, if largely uninteresting, but the best moments were those that focused on the titular Fantastic Beasts. With the sequel though, we move further away from that stuff and into Grindlewald, a character we know is evil because he's played by Johnny Depp, my famous nemesis. Anyway, he's trying to raise an evil army and do evil stuff so our cast of characters, both old and new, have to try and save the day. What you've probably picked up is that this film relies heavily on the first film but this is also a film that is clearly just here to set up the next three films (yeah, seriously) and in pretty much all the film, you feel that. It's also a film where stuff just kind of seems to be happening, which is why my description is so vague. I'm not trying to steer away from spoilers (although I'm sure the Harry Potter fandom would be down my throat for those), I just genuinely wasn't sure what happened over the 130 odd minute film. So nah, not a great start.

Maybe one of the better things about the film is the cast who all manage to be not particularly bad. Leading the way is Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander and he manages to be solidly charming. Nothing exceptional but I was never unhappy to have him as the lead. The rest of his ensemble vary fairly wildly. Dan Fogler is still okay comic fodder, Katharine Waterson is still decently charming and I still find Alison Sudol's New York accent grating. For the new cast. Zoe Kravitz deals with her important role fairly well, Callum Turner is verging on forgettable as Newt's brother and Jude Law deals with the important, if not actually that large, role of Dumbledore with caution. His portrayal won't blow anyone away (and there's no hints at Rowling's claim that Dumbledore is gay) but equally, I don't think fans will look at him and feel cheated with the representation of a beloved character. Final two now, Ezra Miller is as solid as he was last time but he has yet to prove that he's truly brilliant and now, the big one: Johnny Depp. Depp's reveal in the first film was a huge disappointment because I love Colin Farrell and can't stand Depp but you know what, I could get over it in this film. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to be anything close to a fan of his anytime soon but it's a performance I could find some enjoyment in.

Remember at the start of the review where I said the best thing about the first film was the Fantastic Beasts? That is definitely still the case here and anytime Newt descended into his suitcase, I got excited. Hell, there's a huge caterpillar/cat/dog type thing that you see in the trailers and there's a couple of moments with that that genuinely gave me goosebumps. As I said though, we don't get enough of those moments and with all the plotting and intrigue going on, I just found myself being achingly bored. It's people, talking to other people about people I'm not entirely sure if we've met yet. When there are action scenes though, even those are boring, just a cascade of unbelievable looking CGI not quite damaging characters I have no interest in. It was even getting so bad that I was genuinely and sincerely comparing the film to the Transformers franchise in some scenes. There is a chance that maybe my attitude on these things is simply because I have grown sick of Harry Potter as a franchise and that fans will get something out of this stuff but I just don't think David Yates is really a particularly great director. Almost all of his film career is Harry Potter films and so he lacks any cinematic charm, which is hugely hindered by the fact that Rowling just kind of seems to be making stuff up with each passing film. Many of the revelations we get are just "huh?" moments and I was never surprised in an interesting way.

I am not the target audience for this film and I feel perfectly comfortable admitting that but it gives me an outside perspective and looking in from a more critical angle, I just don't think this is a film that works. Infinity War is a film that cannot stand alone but it feels like it does. Crimes of Grindlewald just feels like taking out a chunk of something that you're meant to enjoy as a whole. Can't say I cared for the film at all and so while not spectacularly awful, it still deserves a score of