Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Review
Continuing the prequel era of the Harry Potter universe, Newt is back at the awkward game and cuddly beasts. Balancing between the continuing saga of Newt and his lovable friends and the increasing influence of Dumbledore vs Grindelwald, the wizards of the early 20th century get ready with a pre-war across France. Friendships are split, repaired, and new as the group of people responsible for confronting Grindelwald down the line start to take shape. Like Newt himself, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a lovable, yet awkward, installment into this rich cinematic universe.
The film starts off with the prisoner exchange between the American magical order and the British over Grindelwald. It's epic, gloomy, and has a fantastic Thestral action set piece in the rain. Short version is...Grindelwald escapes, duh. Time jump a few months to see Newt, awkward and lovable as always, awaiting a hearing at the ministry so that he can travel the world again, and it does not go well. At this time we are introduced to his brother, Thesues played by Callum Turner, whom is the more successful of the two. In the meantime Newt is later reunited with Queenie and Jacob, we see more of his "zoo" at home, and finally Dumbledore asks Newt to look for Credence in Paris. As set ups for big action blockbusters go this felt very refreshing and enjoyable as there were a lot of character moments and dazzling scenes that made me feel the magic of the world that the first two Harry Potter movies achieved.
Walking out of the first movie I didn't feel that attached to Newt as a character. Now, I'm surprisingly really into Eddie Redmayne's performance as the awkward wizard who loves monsters more than people. He has a great dynamic with Dan Fogler as Jacob and this film reinforces the notion that there needs to be more of them. Sadly Newt takes more of a step back to make way for the Grindelwald story line even though he is the audience's through line. The characters around him get more of an arc than he does, and even then it's only a bit. More often than not this felt like a bridging film for the characters than a meaty emotional one.
The special effects are...dare I say magical. It is an over bloated Hollywood approach, but unlike other blockbusters this truly felt like the CGI had a purpose. Take the circus scene. Outside there were wizards and witches floating in bubbles, magical fireworks, and just plain old magic in the air. It really contributed to the aesthetic of the wizarding world and the world building much more than any Harry Potter film previously, except for the first two. Unfortunately, the film doesn't go into magic in every day life. We see the ministry, and the fun of the circus, but never do we see an average day for a witch or wizard. The audience is shown the magical life after school which is juxtaposed to the student life of Hogwarts for a cool sense of how magic becomes ever present in your life.
There are many twists and turns in this film, and sadly it seems you'll either hate them or love them. J. K. Rowling is really pushing the Grindelwald story line in this installment and while some aspects of it are interesting, like his approach in converting the wizarding world, others are not so much. The little details Rowling puts into her scripts for these characters are fascinating, like how Voldemort and Grindelwald want the same thing but go about it in totally different ways. While Voldemort was the more aggressive one that expressed his opinion via fear it's Grindelwald who takes an opposite approach and gets people to his side by playing to their sympathies of what's to come. The scene where his meeting takes place is really fascinating as he shows the witches and wizards the future to come in a very drug induced psychedelic scene, and the character's reactions to it are powerful, especially Jacob's.
Sadly, when the film isn't being a cute save the beasts movie with Newt and company it loses traction with the overall plot and character arcs that are supposed to be important in the overall run. Such as Grindelwald. While this movie is named after him and the promotions featuring the deathly hallows...he's barely in the movie and we only get to see the Elder wand a few times. We don't even get a clear scope of what his crimes are. Surprisingly this movie is so much more about the Lestrange family than Grindelwald, and culminates with an almost laughable reveal in the third act. To add to the pile this film also introduces Nagini, Voldemort's snake, that is actually a human with a curse? I'm not quite sure how to feel about this inclusion since we know Nagini's fate in the Deathly Hallows. Further more this film takes full advantage of the J. K. Rowling romance subplot...in that it's messy.
The tension between Jacob and Queenie is good as Queenie used a very unethical method to sway Jacob, but their relationship by the end felt forced and artificial as did the Newt, Tina, and Leta psuedo-love triangle. Oh, and don't even get me started with the relationship the film tries so hard not to mention between Dumbledore and Grindelwald.
Overall, I found this movie to be a fantastic romp around the wizarding world. If you're paying close attention you can see very recognizable mythical animals from around the world, and their interactions with the wizarding world and Newt are always the highlight for these movies. Sadly the film doesn't keep it's quality as it prepares the next step in the Grindelwald saga while making many references, some exciting and while others problematic, to the Potter movies to come. It's a mixed bag and doesn't even take advantage of the foreign magical schools that we know exist (where are the Beauxbatons Academy students??) and tries to make the audience care about a romantic relationship that is hardly believable on screen (I forget her name, but Newt's assistant with his animals at home had more chemistry than he does with Tina).
7/10
