Film Overstuffed setup film with shades of greatness
I didn’t like this movie at all when it first came out but I recently rewatched it because of quarantine and my opinion of it has greatly improved. It’s not without some big flaws but I see it in a different light now. Basically I think this movie is going to go down as the “Chamber of Secrets” of this franchise. Seems kind of dull and filled with lore but necessary in the long run to get the story moving. CoS (the book) was also seen as boring when it came out but it’s incredibly important to setting up the story. Also from what I've read, WB chopped parts of this movie up so I think a lot of it comes down to editing.
All in all, this movie is set up like an episode of a tv show and not really a movie. I think thinking of it like this helps to understand it. I get why people think it's dull but looking at it like that helps imo. The biggest problem to me is the pacing.The opening is amazing but the film just kind of plods around before really coming together very well in the third act. The rally scene is one of the best in the entire franchise. I think a lot of this falls on Yates and the editing team.
The characters are the highlight. Grindelwald is such an amazing character and Depp kills it but he’s definitely underused. I also really like Law as young Dumbledore (who’s my favorite HP character) but he’s also underused, although I understand why. Newt is my 2nd favorite character in the franchise and Jacob is also great. Leta is good but underused and Theseus is very interesting.
A couple of the criticisms I think are unfair, the But Not Too Gay one and the one about Queenie joining Grindelwald. I think the film pretty clearly spells out that Dumbledore and Grindelwald were more than friends. It’s something the former is obviously ashamed of, wouldn’t you be ashamed to admit that you were in a relationship with someone this bad and that relationship got one of your siblings killed? Frankly, it wasn’t really that ministry guy’s business anyway. There’s also the fact that foreign markets are such a big deal for movie franchises now and I think if it got too explicit about the relationship, they’d get Banned in China. It's not fair but it's the way the world works. Queenie, I think, people missed the fact that she was taken advantage of manipulated into it, thus I think the coded Jewish criticism doesn't quite hit the mark. She wasn't in her right mind and wouldn't you join someone who told you you could be with the man you love? There's plenty of people who join groups like this out of love. Also he's crazy charismatic, so much that the smartest and most powerful character in the series fell prey to him as well.
Overall, I'd give this about a 7/10. TLDR: I understand why people may find it boring but I could see it being necessarily that way and it end up being an important piece of the puzzle. Like Xilinoc said, I like the first movie a lot more but this is one leaves me more intrigued.
Film A dash of undercooked fantasy thriller, filled up with dull soap opera
Back when Rowling was writing books for kids, she could give us compelling mysteries, likable characters and awesome fantasy worldbuilding. Now that she writes for those who grew up with her works, she gives us a lousy sitcom, more interested in the cast's romantic troubles than in the titular antagonist's supposed crimes.
Grindelwald's plots stay in the background for almost the entire movie, while Loads and Loads of Characters exposit, bicker with their significant others, and are given ridiculously convoluted family histories. Many subplots fight for screen time, but pretty much none of them are solidly fleshed out. Newt's ex girlfriend, for some reason, gets more focus than any of the first movie's leads, or Grindelwald. Giving her this much screen time is not only boring but also seems pretty pointless since she dies at the end anyway.
The previous movie was mediocre but entertaining. This one is an unfocused mess that doesn't even appear to have a central narrative, only a collection of C plots, lots of which seem to have been taken out of a day time soap.
Well, every franchise has its dud somewhere down the line. We can only hope that the series will get better from here.
Film Better than Before, but Not Without New Issues
When I saw the first Fantastic Beasts movie back in 2016, I was...whelmed. The visuals were good, I liked Jacob and Newt, and the ending had a couple unique beats that made it memorable, but overall it just felt kinda generic and, to some degree, like another graphics test film like Film/Avatar (particularly the beast showoff scene in the second act). Additionally, Grindelwald's reveal was trash, through and through. Suffice it to say, I don't go into this movie with soaring expectations.
Thankfully, Crimes of Grindelwald is an upgrade, though how significant of one I'm still not sure. Let's start with the positives (spoilers ahead):
-The opening sequence is great and feels like something out of a horror movie while simultaneously showing off just how powerful, cunning, and ruthless Grindelwald is.
-Newt and Jacob continue to carry the movie on their shoulders through sheer talent and humor. Love those guys.
-Magic this time around is much more diverse in application and function - shoutout to the gold-themed detection spell Newt uses to track down Tina.
-Grindelwald's an asshole, but Depp's natural charm leads you to fall for him and his speeches about saving the world by overthrowing the Muggle order (till you remember the murders). His scene with Queenie also works wonders for this.
-The brief romance scene between Newt and Tina is awkward, fumbling, realistic, and endearing as all hell because of it, without definitively putting them into relationship territory.
-Jude Law as a young, hot Dumbledore is perfection - he draws on the original series' portrayal in just the right amount while still adding his own dimensions to the character to make it clear that they're the same person at different points in their life.
-Nagini and her casting are great, fuck the haters.
Now for the negatives:
-Too. Many. Characters. The first movie didn't have this problem, and I didn't expect it going into this one, but hot damn there are some focus issues here. Yusuf starts out as one character and ends as a completely different one without even a semblance of Character Development (hello, random slam poetry), Nikolas Flamel was a great cameo but really did not need a second scene featuring him saving the day, and Krall...I had to look on the character page to find his damn name, his two scenes were that unnecessary. Could've cut him out altogether and given his lines to Vinda. She was cool, if completely insane.
-Infanticide, not once but twice. I'm all for dark shit in my media but did we really need this to happen TWICE in a Harry Potter movie? C'mon.
-I love Erza Miller as Corvus, but his whole plotline about discovering his true identity is just...convoluted. Also, his final scene is cool and all, but if Grindelwald is in fact lying about him being Aurelius Dumbledore that's just gonna prolong this shit even more.
All said, the positives outnumber the negatives, but the negatives were so pervasive across the movie that it soured what was otherwise a pretty solid experience. It left me more invested for part 3 than the first movie did for this sequel, so there's that, but there's still much to be done before we can get a truly great entry in this franchise, and it saddens me that no one aside from the actors seems to be putting their best foot forward here.