Obligatory bad puns aside, this film was genuinely, uncharacteristically boring for what I expected. The first installment was a charming film with forgivable lackings, while the second was a So Bad, It's Good plot trainwreck that had its own intrigue, and both were very immersive and rich. This one, in contrast, has absolutely nothing of the previous, neither the good nor the bad points. It's just plain forgettable.
I have the feeling this movie was basically pentalogy filler. The script has one or two ideas that seem great to me, like Grindelwald running for president or the introduction of the German Ministry of Magic, but it barely does nothing with them, and it looks like the writers were busier trying to hide the fact that they were either unable or unwilling to capitalize on any idea. An important plot point between Dumbledore and Grindelwald is solved in a truly bizarre way (if I got it correctly, Because Destiny Says So), the development of two characters in Grindelwal's entourage goes in weird directions, many others feel underutilized...
Even the direction seems to have got incredibly lazy. In a shock for a film of this franchise, I found myself thinking on how visually uninteresting everything feels. It all looks either metaphorically or literally grey, all grey and brown. It's like David Yates had better things to do and they put Christopher Nolan to direct the film from the toilet seat. It's even weirder considering I had got accustomed surprisingly easy to this pentalogy's choices in wizard attires (robes out, suits and neckties in) and fight choreography (magical shoots bang bang bang, swoosh, the rare Improv Fu spell, bang bang).
About Grindelwald, the thing most talked about, don't get me wrong, I believe Mads Mikkelsen does a pretty impeccable job in his usual style, but I cannot see him as the right man for this role. His version of the character is just too bland, too anodyne, and looks and behaves too much like a Craig Bond villain to give a dark wizard supremacist vibe. About the critics marking him as superior to Depp in the role, let's be frank, Mikkelsen could have acted the role while hopping around on one leg with his tongue out and critics would have still marked his character as superior to Depp's. About the second great darkie, Credence, the less we talk about him in this film, the better.
In conclusion, there's nothing memorable in any field of the movie. I watched it yesterday and honestly feel like it was some flick I watched five years ago. I don't know what new directions will the franchise take, but for now this installment has left me unable to care.
The Secrets of Dumblebore
Obligatory bad puns aside, this film was genuinely, uncharacteristically boring for what I expected. The first installment was a charming film with forgivable lackings, while the second was a So Bad, It's Good plot trainwreck that had its own intrigue, and both were very immersive and rich. This one, in contrast, has absolutely nothing of the previous, neither the good nor the bad points. It's just plain forgettable.
I have the feeling this movie was basically pentalogy filler. The script has one or two ideas that seem great to me, like Grindelwald running for president or the introduction of the German Ministry of Magic, but it barely does nothing with them, and it looks like the writers were busier trying to hide the fact that they were either unable or unwilling to capitalize on any idea. An important plot point between Dumbledore and Grindelwald is solved in a truly bizarre way (if I got it correctly, Because Destiny Says So), the development of two characters in Grindelwal's entourage goes in weird directions, many others feel underutilized...
Even the direction seems to have got incredibly lazy. In a shock for a film of this franchise, I found myself thinking on how visually uninteresting everything feels. It all looks either metaphorically or literally grey, all grey and brown. It's like David Yates had better things to do and they put Christopher Nolan to direct the film from the toilet seat. It's even weirder considering I had got accustomed surprisingly easy to this pentalogy's choices in wizard attires (robes out, suits and neckties in) and fight choreography (magical shoots bang bang bang, swoosh, the rare Improv Fu spell, bang bang).
About Grindelwald, the thing most talked about, don't get me wrong, I believe Mads Mikkelsen does a pretty impeccable job in his usual style, but I cannot see him as the right man for this role. His version of the character is just too bland, too anodyne, and looks and behaves too much like a Craig Bond villain to give a dark wizard supremacist vibe. About the critics marking him as superior to Depp in the role, let's be frank, Mikkelsen could have acted the role while hopping around on one leg with his tongue out and critics would have still marked his character as superior to Depp's. About the second great darkie, Credence, the less we talk about him in this film, the better.
In conclusion, there's nothing memorable in any field of the movie. I watched it yesterday and honestly feel like it was some flick I watched five years ago. I don't know what new directions will the franchise take, but for now this installment has left me unable to care.