“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” disappoints fans worldwide
Warning! This movie review contains spoilers from Fantastic Beasts:The Crimes of Grindelwald.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was released on November 16 and it is the sequel to 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Being the latest film of the Wizarding World, this movie was highly anticipated by fans of both its predecessor and the Harry Potter series. Contrary to the excitement leading to the film’s release, it has proved to be a failure in the box office, reaching an all-time low in the US (Independent).
The movie’s plot centers around the character Credence, played by Ezra Miller, and his quest to find his true heritage. However, the plot constantly deviated from this conflict and addressed multiple subplots without fully elaborating them. Most of these subplots were on relationships between characters such as Newt and Leta, Jacob and Queenie, and even Dumbeldore and Grindelwald. Even the shocking reveal at the end of the movie (Credence is a Dumbeldore!) wasn’t well received. It created more puzzling questions than answers because it completely altered the history of the Harry Potter universe that fans of the series have grown to love.
For a movie called The Crimes of Grindelwald, there weren’t many conflicts that Grindelwald caused. While many fans interpreted the movie to be an apocalyptic-level war between the Aurors and Grindelwald before its release, the movie delivered tensionless bursts of action throughout the movie, making the title seem like an exaggeration made by the writers. The only notable “crimes” that Grindelwald committed were killing Leta, manipulating Queenie to abandon the Aurors, and influencing Jacob to join him. The final battle was also extremely underwhelming since the Aurors never truly fights Grindelwald. Instead, Grindelwald creates a large, scorching fire that distinguishes his followers from his enemies, and then leaves the fire to be extinguished by the Aurors. The movie was so focused on telling a needlessly complicated story that it forgot to entertain its audience with exhilarating action sequences.
However, The Crimes of Grindelwald wasn’t a complete and utter failure. The movie continued its strong aesthetics with its costumes, set designs, and cinematography. The actors and actresses were well dressed since they mostly wore formal clothes, the action sequences in the movie were directed to near perfection, and the colors that the film utilized synchronized with the tone of the film, usually using a gray or a blue background layer. There were also several standout performances in the movie, including Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, Jude Law as Albus Dumbeldore, and Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a movie that has disappointed both fans of the series and cinemagoers looking for an entertaining movie to watch. Though the film looks aesthetically pleasing and contains great performances, the convoluted plot and lack of action makes the movie noticeably worse than the first Fantastic Beasts film.
Featured Image – The main cast of The Crimes of Grindelwald Courtesy of Cnet.com