[BLOG]: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald 2018 - POPULAR REVIEWS

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald 2018 - POPULAR REVIEWS

Title : Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018-11-14) Gellert Grindelwald has escaped imprisonment and has begun gathering followers to his causeâ€"elevating wizards above all non-magical beings. The only one capable of putting a stop to him is the wizard he once called his closest friend, Albus Dumbledore. However, Dumbledore will need to seek help from the wizard who had thwarted Grindelwald once before, his former student Newt Scamander, who agrees to help, unaware of the dangers that lie ahead. Lines are drawn as love and loyalty are tested, even among the truest friends and family, in an increasingly divided wizarding world. 

Original Title : Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Watch this link!: Viralch*info/?s=Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Runtime : 134 min. Genre : Drama, Family, Fantasy Stars : Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, Jude Law, Ezra Miller

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindleward is a completely laborious title and equally a time drain of a film. It’s a film that is simultaneously shorter than any of the Harry Potter films (by quite a large margin for few of them) and only a minute longer than the first in this spin-off franchise, and yet also incredibly boring. Large sections of the film feel flat and without any form of brevity, with characters exposing endlessly about boring events that feel pointless, and ultimately end up being pointless. There is a character who gets a large section of the film put aside so they can grow as a character, and it’s boring, but at least it is in service to something that actually ends up at the final second to be interesting, something a lot of the other films do badly and people dislike about them. But then this new, interesting idea gets taken away. Not in a quick, shocking way, or in a slow, emotionally wrought way, in a boring predictable way. Boring and predictable are probably the best descriptions for this film. On to aspects I liked, which are basically just Newt. Newt is great. I don’t really like the first fantastic beasts, it’s pretty mediocre but one of its saving graces was Newt as a character. That is also true of this film, Newt is so good. I love his amazingly distinct costume, I love the way the character acts, how he’s developed and how it realistically makes sense for him to develop in this fashion. I think the major problem with Newt is he isn’t in it enough, even with flashbacks (which are amazingly well acted by an actor who is really good at picking up the weird inflections and mannerisms of Redmayne). I want more Newt goddammit But instead, he gets sidelined for an ongoing cavalcade of characters, most of whom are useless. Just a quick recap of every character; Ministry guy who shows up for 2 scenes and never again, a henchwoman who I think is never named, a henchman who I also think is never named, random family, Newt’s brother who has no character and does nothing, Leta Le Strange, Nagini who does nothing, Creedence, a black french guy, the comedy relief from the first one, his love interest, Tina (who does nothing for most if not all the movie), Dumbledore, Grindelwald. All of these characters have scenes from their perspectives, some of them multiple, and that’s not including some side characters who are also seen, and it just becomes a mess of family trees and interpersonal relationships I just don’t care about. There is an aspect of the film that sometimes helps it and sometimes hinders it, and that’s the worldbuilding to a larger universe. This is a problem insofar as the plot doesn’t really end, it kind of feels like an act 2 to a story, which is strange as this is the second of five when it feels like the second in a trilogy. It is also held down by the baggage of the franchise, with so many cameos and references it’s like the Ready Player One of Harry Potter, only I don’t like Gundam less for being in Ready Player One. The story is also equally as inconsistent, as many elements come out of nowhere (including 2 retcons of the last movie, with no reasoning as to why or how) and almost nothing is concluded or explained in a satisfying way. The film does, however, add lots of new creatures, which are another highlight of the film for me, as having new cultures and ideas possible within the universe makes it feel so much more diverse and accessible to other audiences, and best of all, creates wild possibilities for future films. All I wanted was Grindlewald to get out of bland, grey cities and run off to Asia or Africa and show us a more interesting interpretation of magic. If Fantastic Beasts didn’t progress down the rabbit hole of prequel series and instead followed Newt going around the world solving animal-related problems in different cultures I would be so on board for this. But no, it’s all seriousness all the time, with evil wizard Nazis taking over the world. The wizard Nazis parallels to the real world version are interestingly, while also confusingly handled. I think having them as a group who are trying to gain influence and control through rallies and non-violent means as a front to their violent practices is interesting if a little underwhelming. Grindelwald as a villain is supposed to be alluring and captivating as a speaker (like a real-world nazi) and as much as Johhny Depp’s performance is weird and stilted, that is communicated pretty well. My issue is whether that is through his performance, or through knowing more about Depp’s personal life. Not to say he is a Nazi, obviously, because he isn’t anywhere near as bad, however with all of his personal turmoils and yet people still have him around in their films, like he downplays his personal nature and paints himself as the man being downtrodden upon. Also sometimes he’s just bad. Speaking of bad, the action editing is actually dreadful. Suicide Squad as an analogy gets thrown around a lot as a film with atrocious editing, and though this film doesn’t have that level of bad editing, there are some lowlights. One is the initial action scene with Grindelwald, that scene is genuinely confusing to look at, as the camera is being thrown around and cuts are so quick and adhere to so little logic they just skip around the scene, making the viewer lose all sense of space and time. My overall feeling on the film is one of generic ambivalence, though I have been pretty negative with my review, I couldn’t hate it. Most of the performances were strong, the effects were good, Newt is still amazing, the comedy was hit and miss, the score was good at some points and forgettable at others, and overall I don’t hate or dislike, I just don’t like it either. I have given both this film and the first film the same score, but for different reasons, where the original is a boring film with nothing going on, this is a film that is mostly boring, with a few good elements and a few terrible elements, and so I would say they equal to a similar level of quality, but with this one being slightly less than the other. I’m fine with it right now, but in the future, I could grow to dislike it.