I was actually pretty excited to see this new entry into the Fantastic Beasts series. I was a huge fan of the original installment, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, in part due to the magical performances of Eddie Redmayne, Ezra Miller and especially Katherine Waterston. The dynamics between Newt (Redmayne), Tina (Waterston), Quennie (Alison Sudol) and “muggle” Jacob (Dan Fogler) were compelling to me, and were reminiscent of the wonderful relationship of Harry, Hermione and Ron that grounded the original Harry Potter series. However, writer J.K. Rowling (who was given full autonomy over this film’s script and the direction of this series, for that matter) and director David Yates clearly did not see the groundwork of this series the same way I did. Instead, they chose to focus the second installment of this franchise on the weak and uninteresting villain Grindelwald so they could hand over the face of this franchise to . . . Johnny Depp? No wonder J.K. Rowling went out of her way to defend Depp after he found himself on the wrong side of the #MeToo movement.
Most of the decisions made in this film make no sense, and it’s all covered by this weird level of “prestige,” as if Rowling fully believes this franchise will be every bit as culturally impactful as the original Harry Potter franchise. All of this combines for an installment that is so bad it makes me want to revisit the original Fantastic Beasts and figure out why I enjoyed that one so much.
So, the good: I think Ezra Miller should be in everything, so of course I would enjoy Credence. Honestly, Credence is the only saving grace of this film. His arc is far more interesting than what I remember in the first one: he’s more of a flawed character struggling to find his purpose versus a sort of comic book villain that everyone is seeking for some reason. While that will be largely overshadowed by how much of a comic book villain Grindelwald is, Rowling is doing a pretty good job with Credence thus far. Minus the completely ridiculous twist at the end of this film.
Also, Dumbledore is cool. And the “fantastic beasts” are cool.
Everything else is awful. Let’s start with the core characters: Newt, Tina, Quennie and Jacob. Rowling chooses to create division between Quennie and the rest of the group that isn’t earned in any way and totally contradictory to her character in the first film. Her character does a complete one-eighty for the sole purpose of delivering shock value in this installment.
The twist at the end is hilariously awful. It doesn’t fit into the world at all and does nothing except tell us that Rowling is all out of original ideas. Finally, why did J.K. Rowling go all-in on this uninteresting character Grindelwald? He’s not unique and is nothing more than a comic book villain. He’s decided that wizards are better than humans . . . why doesn’t Grindelwald just jump into the muggle world and announce he’s a wizard and going to take over the planet? It doesn’t help that Grindelwald is portrayed by Johnny Depp, a dude who has had one single decent film (Black Mass) since he debuted his character in the original Pirates of the Caribbean.
In case that wasn’t enough, this movie isn’t even all that good from a technical perspective. Sure, the effects are pretty good, but the lighting, production design and cinematography are all pretty bad. There are a ton of corners cut in these departments by David Yates, with the highlight being one of the worst chase sequences I’ve ever seen. The opening scene is shot at night, in the rain, and is so muddy, dark and incoherent it would make The Lone Ranger proud. Speaking of incoherent, why is this film so dark? From start to finish, much of this film is shot in dark corridors and on dark sets. Everything is brown, grey or black. If you’re going to give us a convoluted story and force us to watch Johnny Depp for two hours, at least give us some pretty colors to look at!
In conclusion, Fantastic Beasts: The Crime of Grindelwald is not good. It’s not even worth watching once it hits streaming services. I’ll give this franchise one more go because I am somewhat interested in what they do with Credence. I am exactly the demographic that grew up reading the Harry Potter books, and hopefully they’ll realize we need more of Newt, Tina, Quennie and Jacob, but I won’t lie: we’re on thin ice now. What a shame that this franchise has fallen so hard.
