Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald | Movie Review
Good afternoon ladies and gents of the X-Army, it’s been a wild in the busy world of myself and I hope you all have been well. So I turned 29 recently, I know I am getting up there, but besides me getting old I spent time with some of my dear friends and watched the latest installment in the Wizarding World. Yes J.K did it again with Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald and it was an experience. Seeing the perspective of life before the “Boy Who Lived” came about is fascinating to see. So without further ado, let’s get straight into this review.
Plot|
In an effort to thwart Grindelwald’s plans of raising pure-blood wizards to rule over all non-magical beings, Albus Dumbledore enlists 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.
Cast|
Kicking us off we have the legend that is Johnny Depp playing the title character Grindelwald, basically Voldemort’s inspiration of wanting to divide the Wizarding and Muggle world. Grindelwald’s plan is to gather as much followers as possible to reset the order of the Wizarding World and bring back the rule of the “Pure Blooded” wizards to the forefront. Second we have the main protagonist and lead himself, Eddie Redmayne reprising his role as Newt Scamander. In this installment Newt seeks to help a confused Credence find him true identity and separate him from the clutches of Grindelwald. Ezra Miller returns as a confused Credence making his identity unknown working as a Circus hand. His ultimate goal is to find out what happened to him in the previous film, since he is still alive, and who he truly is in the grand of it all.
Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, and Katherine Waterston reprise their roles as Jacob, Queenie, and Tina respectively. Since the events of the last film each member of Newt’s inner circle are struggling with personal issues, from secretive love that is not allowed in the Wizarding World to interprersonal soul searching. Last on the list of main characters we have Jude Law playing the role of Dumbledore, the long-time love of Grindelwald and world renouned professor at Hogwarts. In this film Dumbledore instructs Newt with information on locating Credence and how to exploit Grindelwald’s weaknesses.
Set-Pieces|
The first set-piece see Grindelwald being transported from the Azkaban prison to another facility by the Ministry of Magic. This plan fails however and Grindelwald manages to escape, with the infiltration of one of his followers, and he kills the transport security in order to send a message that he is back. The second set-piece follows a confused Credence working as a Circus hand in the Wizard World. He is infatuated with Nagini, who is helping him piece together who he is. While being abused by the ringmaster in a routine, Credence releases small creatures in an attempt to free Nagini and himself. A large cat-like creature manages to create a big enough diversion to aid their escape, thus becoming a success.
The third set-piece sees Newt, who can no longer go back to America, at his home base tending to his beasts. Queenie and Jacob pay him a visit to inform Newt that the memory loss spell from the first movie didn’t work on Jacob and that they plan to wed. Being the insightful person he is, Newt sees that Jacob is under a love spell and talks Queenie into freeing Jacob. Allowing him to have his own freewill back and see if this is what he wants to do. Once released from the spell, Jacob and Queenie have the most nonsensical fight I have ever seen which results in Queenie running away to France to be with her sister Tina. The fourth set-piece then turns to Tina in France trying to gather as much information on the Grindelwald escape. We as the audience learn that the reason she left to go to France in the first place was due to a misunderstanding with an article suggesting that Newt was getting married to Lestrange, but it was really his brother who is marrying her. Jealousy is a hell of a thing. Anyway, she is gathering as much intel on Grindelwald’s followers, what his goal is, and subsequently discovering Credence is still alive.
The fifth set-piece sees Newt and Jacob make their way to France to locate their friends and help Credence. After a brief meeting with Dumbledore, Newt learns of the blood pact between himself and Grindelwald which prevents him from taking on Grindelwald himself. Because let’s be fair here, Dumbledore can take out Grindelwald easily and with this random thing in the works is a smart way to progress the story to flesh it out more. This could be a one film adaptation, but the blood pact was smart. The sixth set-piece sees Queenie being seduced by Grindelwald, who is playing off her desire to be with Jacob. As a result of this interaction, Queenie becomes one of his followers because of her want to be married and wants to take Jacob with her. Meanwhile, Newt and Tina infiltrate the French Ministry of Magic to find records of a missing baby that was killed many years ago in the Lestrange bloodline. The encounter the Ministry’s security defense in the form of savage cats the multiply when killed. Newt and Tina make it out just in time, finding a spark in their infatuation for each other in the process.
The seventh set-piece sees Newt and Tina meet up with Jacob at a cemetery where Leta Lestrange’s brother is questioning Credence over his ancestry. Leta chimes in and confesses to placing her real brother in danger, and subsequently to his death, because he wouldn’t stop crying. So she switched that child with baby Credence, resulting in their bloodline having a missing gap and Leta’s brother dying after this discovery. He spent his life piecing together who did this and swore an oath to dedicate every breath in his body to kill whoever did it. It was Leta and he couldn’t kill her. The final set-piece sees Grindelwald delivering a speech to his followers that honestly deserves an award. After discovering that Ministry agents are their, he inflames the arena and invites who wants to be in his army to join him, as those who don’t will be killed. Jacob refuses to go with Queenie, cementing her place beside Grindelwald. The remaining heros manage to escape the cursed flame and venture to Hogwarts. There Newt shows Dumbledore that he managed to get the blood-pact container from Grindelwald, leaving them with a nice advantage in the battle. We then transition to Grindelwald’s hideout where we see Credence given a wand and informed that he is a Dumbledore, setting up an interesting third movie.
Conclusion & Rating|
I found this movie interesting. There were many twists and turns in the film, but discovering that Credence is a Dumbledore through me off at the end. I didn’t find the forced love between Newt and Tina to be realistic. In the overall story they have a son that goes to Hogwarts in the future, but the film version of these two don’t project the chemistry. The fact the Queenie essentially drugs Jacob is not talked about in the media, but to me I found it very unattractive. There was outrage over the young lady showing her abs in Star Trek, but drugging Jacob just because Queenie wants to get married…nothing. Anyway, Queenie loses that thing that made her special in the first film to a now whiny and confused brat. Grindelwald and Dumbledore’s love in the movie is clear for all to see, surprise people the guy is gay and it’s no big deal. I found it interesting that because of the blood-pact he can’t take on Grindelwald, which would make the film a solo film and not stretched out to a ton of other movies. I hope this doesn’t become a too stretched Twilight saga scenario. Overall the movie was enjoyable for what it was, nothing new in terms of information we already knew minus the dead baby thing and there were not enough beasts in this Fantastic Beasts movie. The special effects for me saved it from being a crap show and the growth of Newt impressed me. A solid 4.5 out of 5.
Thank you guys for checking out our review of Fantastic Beast: The Crimes Of Grindelwald. We hope you enjoyed it. Please give this a like, share and follow for more content. Have a blessed day and be safe out there. Take it easy!
Originally published at xagonspeaks.wordpress.com on December 2, 2018.
