Fantastic Beasts 2 Review: It's Criminally Disappointing

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There is a moment towards the end of Fantastic Beasts: The Grindelwald Crimes when I realized that the scene I was watching could have been the second of the movie. Instead, it was near the end, decisive and important. Still, it took so long to get here and everything that happened before is so superfluous for the events unfolding, it turned out that the latest JK movie The Wizarding World of Rowling n was just not up to it.

Directed by David Yates and written by Rowling, Fantastic Beasts: The Grindelwald Crimes is the second film in a series of five films proposed that began in 2016 with fantastic beasts and where to find them. This first film had a lot to do, introducing a brand new section of the Rowling franchise with characters, mythologies, creatures and more. In fact, there was so much to do, as long as it was entertaining, we could almost forgive it if there was not much in the end. (What I did, giving him a positive review.)

With the continuation however, it is no longer an option. Things have been established. This must remain alone. He must have an interesting story with dynamic characters and only tangentially tease towards future movies that may or may not happen. However, Rowling's script goes in the opposite direction. Fantastic Beasts: The Grindelwald Crimes is even less anxious to tell a concise and satisfying story than his predecessor. What is worse is almost every turn, the film weaves broad strokes created solely to prepare the next film, some of which add to what is actually happening on the screen.

Several months after the end of the first film, The crimes of Grindelwald Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) was commissioned by Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) to find Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller). The credence is also sought after by the evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) and several aurors (black wizard hunters), including Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston). Throughout the film, these characters and stories mingle to draw lines of battle as part of a large-scale war between good and evil.

This war is not in this movie though. This movie talks about physically finding Credence, which happens very easily to all things considered, then to find out who is Credence. That's all. To set up this revelation, the film is overloaded with long dumps of exposure filled with flashbacks, ethereal visions, bad indications, etc. These sections sometimes become very confusing, especially when you remember that Credence was killed, but almost in the previous movie, a fact explained here by a few lines of dialogue to throw.

It's the biggest story that The crimes of Grindelwald do not care about the movie you are watching. It is filled with weird and boring coincidences or unexplained connections that feel unnecessarily lazy. For example, at the end of the first film, Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) had his memory erased. But here, he and Queenie (Alison Sudol) show up at random in London and enter Newt's house as if nothing had happened. When asked about this, some lines of dialogue do not take into account the seemingly huge fact that a magic spell did not work out as expected. Another example is how the film forces a separation between Tina and Newt with false news. Or Vanthermort's snake Nagini (Claudia Kim) presented as a person for the sole reason of giving Credence a person to talk to. A complicated secondary plot is in place just to keep Dumbledore out of the action (probably for another movie). It even features a famous Harry Potter name such as Nicolas Flamel (inventor of the sorcerer's stone, played here by Brontis Jodorowsky) for no other reason than to wink at the audience.

So many things are either completely ignored, or obviously included only for the purpose of creating a sequel, it is easy to forget that the film contains many interesting things. More than the last film, which itself contained interesting elements, The crimes of Grindelwald has tons of incredible magical effects, dazzling new sets, and adorable (and terrifying) new beasts, as well as an avalanche of links to the original Harry Potter franchise. And when you watch Newt solve a crime with melancholy magic or tame a giant beast with a toy, it's easy to get lost in a meaningless moment. And yet, they all look like a dusting of a sundae. Of course, they make it beautiful and can even taste good. But they go fast and work mostly to distract from the truth: that what is underneath is simply not good enough to be autonomous.

Once Rowling and Yates have shown enough chasing sequences or wizard battles to finally stop circling and explain who Credence is, it's a revelation strong enough for you to leave the theater half-satisfied and curious. of the sequence of events. But in the end, all the steps taken by the film to get there are so minimal that this feeling is as fleeting as his story. Fantastic Beasts: The Grindelwald Crimes is chapter two of a longer story that may look better once we see the rest – but, in itself, it does not keep its promises. Harry Potter roots.

Fantastic Beasts: The Grindelwald Crimes opens on November 14th. The rest is scheduled for November 20, 2020.