Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Arriving two years after the surprisingly delightful Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, we get the follow-up, The Crimes of Grindelwald, which is the second film in a planned five film series. In true J.K Rowling fashion, the second film takes a darker turn as the big bad begins his rise to power. 

Set a few months after the previous film, Gellert Grindelwald (played by Johnny Depp) has escaped in a daring prison escape and is living on the run in Europe, plotting to start a revolution to take the magical folk out of the shadows and become the ruling class he feels they were destined to be. Newt Scamander (played by Eddie Redmayne), is trying to get permission to travel outside of the U.K again (he's currently banned because of the events of the previous film), a request the Ministry of Magic is only inclined to grant if Newt agrees to help them track down Credence Barebone (played by Ezra Miller) and destroy him, as they fear Grindelwald is looking to recruit the dangerous and unstable boy to his cause. Newt understandably says no. He receives a similar offer from his former teacher, Albus Dumbledore (played by Jude Law), but also turns him down. However, when friends Queenie (played by Alison Sudol) and Jacob (played by Dan Fogler), turn up on his doorstep, Newt finds a reason to get involved. When a fight between Queenie and Jacob over wanting to get married (it's illegal for magic folk and non-magic folk to get married in America, so she wants to do it in the U.K, but Jacob has concerns over what could happen to them if they do), Queenie leaves in a huff to join her sister Tina in Paris. Discovering Tina (played by Katherine Waterston) is in Paris hunting Grindelwald, Newt and Jacob follow in hot pursuit, and in the process find themselves right in the middle of Grindelwald's plot to rise to power in ways they never expected. 

David Yates returns once again to the Wizarding World of J.K Rowling, who wrote the screenplay for the film, for his sixth outing with the franchise and certainly has set the style and tone for the series since he started with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The film does strike a darker tone this time out, which fits with the stories themes. The film does have to juggle a staggering number of plot threads, of which I barely touched on them all above. The film has a lot going on in it and Yates manages to keep the film coherent for the most part (although I did re-watch the first Fantastic Beasts film the night before, so that probably helped). The one flaw with the film is that as much as they are telling the story for this film, it also sets up plot threads that the viewer knows aren't going to pay off until the next film, or the next film after that or the one after that which can make for a bit of a frustrating viewing experience. Still, the film does have enough on tap to make it an entertaining endeavor, especially for fans of the series as the film is littered with Easter Eggs that fans will no doubt pick up on and know all too well how they will pay off down the road in the Harry Potter series. Rowling manages to work in some genuinely shocking plot twists with this outing as well that left me stunned as the credits started to roll, even with the expected annoyance at being left on a cliffhanger. Yates and his crew do a great job creating the world the film exists in as it explores the Wizarding World side of Paris this time out. It's also nice to see a return to Hogwarts for the first time since Deathly Hallows, Part 2, and keep your eyes and ears peeled because Dumbledore isn't the only familiar face whose younger self makes an appearance there either. Still, these are touches that will delight the hardcore fans, but sail over the heads of the more casual viewers.

For all of it's narrative problems, the film at least has a number of wonderful performances within it. Eddie Redmayne gives another endearing performance as the kind-hearted Newt Scamander, a character who has always been most happy with his fantastic creatures more so that other people. Redmayne does a good job portraying Scamander's big heart as well as his more social struggles. Jude Law makes for a great younger Dumbledore, making the role his own while at the same time hinting towards the man that would eventually be played later on in the Harry Potter series, leaning more towards Michael Gambon's iteration of the character rather than Richard Harris. Katherine Waterston does well as Tina, who since the previous film has been reinstated as an Auror and is on the trail of the recently escaped Gellart Grindelwald. Waterston has some good moments with Redmayne as the two try to sort of their relationship, hindered by some misinformation she read about him being engaged (he really isn't). Dan Fogler returns as Jacob Kowalski and has a bit more of a stake in the action this time since his relationship with Tina's sister Queenie has developed and the two want to get married, despite Wizarding World laws in America preventing that and putting a strain on their relationship. Alison Sudol as Queenie likewise has a bit more to chew on in this outing as Queenie, looking for a solution to her woes in all the wrong places and Sudol continues to make her character lovable and sympathetic even as her character makes some staggeringly bad decisions. Johnny Depp does the best with a rather underwritten role. For playing the titular character, we still don't get a real sense of his character. Still, Depp does give the character a certain sense of menace, even if his character largely still remains an enigma. Still, with another three movies left in this series, I can only presume they will be delving into his character more in a subsequent entry, along with Grindelwald's complicated history with Dumbledore (some of which is referenced in this film). However, the well known romantic entanglements between the two characters have yet to be portrayed on screen aside from a telling moment of Dumbledore in front of the Mirror of Erised (a mirror that reflects what the viewer most deeply desires).  

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is more of a mixed bag of a film than the film before it. It suffers from what a lot of middle chapter films in multi-film sagas suffer from, more pre-occupied with setting up things that aren't going to pay off until the next film rather than telling a satisfying story of it's own. The film is well made with stunning visuals and solid performances, but it also has some narrative problems that made the film a little frustrating to me. There is so much going on in this movie that ultimately amounts to not much. Maybe it will make sense once we have Part 3, 4 and 5 but right now it kinda feels like much ado about not much, which is kind of annoying. I still enjoyed the film for what it was and as a fan probably enjoyed it more than many, but it is a definite case of your mileage may vary depending on how much of a Harry Potter fan you are.