“Do you know why I admire you, Newt? You do not seek power. You simply ask, ‘Is a thing… right?'”
Albus Dumbledore
Having really enjoyed the previous Fantastic Beasts movie, I was super excited for this one. I did really good only watching each trailer once, and not delving into details about the movie prior to it’s release. I thought the movie started off really strongly with the opening scene, but didn’t really love anything else up until the final act of the film.
I didn’t like how the rules of certain spells were changed to progress the plot, and how lost characters suddenly returned without much of an explanation. I’ll compare this one to the latest Jurassic film when it comes to Easter eggs. I love references to previous films and meeting characters we had only ever heard of, but too much of that waters down the plot quite a bit I felt. Also when it comes to the plot, there was two or three plots happening at the same time, and then we’d take a break and see some beasts (the beasts were awesome by the way) and then return to one of those three plots. I’m normally pretty good about following a story, but this one I was fairly confused for the most parts, big reveals kept happening but I wasn’t sure how to react because I wasn’t 100% sure what was happening anymore.
What I did really like about this film was a scene towards the end of the movie, but I won’t talk about that because spoilers. The beasts were awesome, we got a wide variety, but I wasn’t fond of them just randomly getting a scene and then moving on as if it never happened. All of the scenes with the beasts could have been cut and it wouldn’t really effect the story. It was almost as though they forgot it was a “Fantastic Beasts” movie and threw them in every once and a while to fit with the title. The visual effects were unsurprising really great, very colorful and bright, and I also enjoyed the soundtrack quite a bit.
This easily became my least favorite film that takes place within the Wizarding World, and I really hope they learn from their mistakes and can improve on the upcoming sequels. Maybe I’ll come back to this movie in a few years and appreciate it more after the story has been fleshed out more since this is part 2 of a five part series. As of right now though, I’m going to give Crimes of Grindelwald a 3/10, but that could possibly change down the line.
My Review Of... 