Movie FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD Review - Photo credit: hdqwalls.com, Edition by Amber255 via Bitlanders.com
The fans of the Harry Potter series were not left sad for a long time. After five years, the magical wizardry world came back to the cinematic screen, telling Harry Potter's prehistory, with one of the most important figures - the young wizard, and the magic animal specialist Newt Scamander. In 2016, the story began with five films, the script being written by J. K. Rowling herself, and now we have come to the second part - FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD.
The first part - Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, was more than perfect movie. The film was full of rich special effects, and it earned four times higher revenue than its budget. After the award-winning season, the Oscar for the best costumes and BAFTA for the best scenography fell into this film's account. Such numbers and facts show that not only the love of spectators for the magical world is not lost, but also its creators try to keep up the level that was pleasing in earlier films. So it's time for the sequel to Fantastic Beasts.
Despite being light in the story department, The Crimes of Grindelwald offers plenty of small pleasures and tightens up the linkage between this series and Harry Potter. - James Berardinelli, ReelViews
Credit: rottentomatoes.com
So, J.K. Rowling, author of the literary phenomenon of the twentieth century's end, Harry Potter, and director David Yates invited us for another spectacular journey through the secret wizardry community, which will soon appear at the threshold of war with humans.
The films have not been only art for a long time, and maybe never was. Its commercial side, especially in terms of contemporary Hollywood, is inseparable. The Harry Potter series is a guaranteed golden river - no matter what's on the screen, it still captures the crowds of viewers in cinemas. Let's see how the creators of FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD succeeded.
Movie FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD: Final Trailer - Video credit: WarnerBrosPictures via YouTube.com
The Short Story Of The Movie
At the end of the first part of Fantastic Beasts, the wizards of the Magic Congress of America, with the help of Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), detained a dangerous black wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp). However, he succeeded in escaping. In pursuit of his great goal, Grindelwald begins gathering an army of supporters to make pure wizards become the only rulers of the world and of all living beings.
Albus Dumbledore(Jude Law), getting to know this, again appeals to the most talented and powerful student Newt Scamander. Newt together with a schoolmate, the legendary alchemist Nicolas Flamel (Brontis Jodorowsky) started to develop a plan to not only resist, but also finally defeat evil Grindelwald. The fateful battle is inevitably coming to an end with the accumulation of forces and allies on both sides.
Newt asks to find Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller) faster than Grindelwald does it. But there is one problem - Newt, unwilling to obey the British magic ministry and his brother Theseus Scamander (Callum Turner), has no right to leave the country. However, this is not stopping him. With the luggage full of magical fantastic beasts, and with Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) Newt goes to Paris to stop Grindelwald.
Eddie Redmayne in FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD - Photo credit: twitter.com
The Content Of The Movie
When a big farewell to Harry Potter took place in 2011, many have speculated when J. K. Rowling will come up with an extension of this fascinating story that has enslaved millions of people around the world. The books were sold as fresh cakes, and it is no surprise that Hollywood created even eight movies by these books. The movies earned even $ 8.5 billion. Therefore, having such numbers, it was only a matter of time when we would be able to return to Hogwarts again.
But no one even suspected that the return to this spectacular magical world would be somewhat different from expected. The author of the Harry Potter books series decided to concentrate on the events that preceded Lord Voldemort's coming to power. And the turn of the storyline was quite logical.
The first Harry Potter pre-story film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them saw the light of day in 2016. The film has become not only a great financial hit, but it has also been highly appreciated both by fans and film critics who praised the J.K. Rowling talent that became a film scriptwriter. In short, everyone was happy.
Fantasy adventure movie FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD - imdb.com
Such a good world-wide acceptance of the film encouraged the Warner Bros studio to go for a sequel. They even announced that this story will have as many as five films. Of course, this is a rather risky statement, because even the most profitable franchises sometimes experience a fiasco. Transformers have become a great example of such a fiasco.
However, Harry Potter is loved by everyone - both small and big film viewers, so there's nothing to worry about. Unless the movies will be worth anything.
The story of the film begins a few years after Gellert Grindelwald's defeat at New York. But the film is very different from the predecessor. There are not Fantastic Beasts here but a fairly good introduction to Harry Potter. Yes, in my opinion, this film is more like a universe known to us from the Harry Potter than the movie that hit the cinema in 2016. And I'll explain why.
In the introduction to this stupendous magical story, only some of the well-known actors of Harry Potter were mentioned and talked briefly about Hogwarts as an institution. Therefore, the film went an inclusive and non-copy of what we have seen in the eight films that preceded it. It was a whole new world, new charismatic heroes, and hard challenges that have become a fresh air bubble for each of J.K. Rowling's creation's fan. And here, in my opinion, everything was fine. The second film has already become different. It has become a clear bridge between the story of Fantastic Beasts and Harry Potter films.
Movie FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD Review - Photo credit: imdb.com
The story of the movie is really good, but not so naively beautiful and cute as in the first part. Everything here was very much matched with the last darkest parts of Harry Potter. On the one hand, it's a great decision to turn the second film into a dark-looking thriller, on the other hand, it was equal to copying the Deathly Hallows. But, at least for me, this did not disturb, because there were well-rooted action scenes which did not allow you to relax out during the preview.
The only flaw of the film is its duration. However, the film has a lot of events that go too fast. Therefore, there is not enough time to concentrate on the most important moments.
By the way, if you hoped to see more fantastic beasts than in the first part and see more Grindelwald's crimes, what you could expect from the title of the film, then you will be disappointed - there are not one or the other in this movie as much as you would like. If for the first element (fantastic beasts) it is still possible to argue, because one another magical creature we see - in fact, much less often than in the first part. For the second part - Grindelwald crimes - you will see only escaping from the prison.
Hollywood film FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD - Photo credit: imdb.com
The Heroes Of The Movie
Since this is just the second episode of the series, we probably should not want its creators to open up all the cards right away. Nevertheless, some characters are developed very superficially, and their abundance raises doubts about their necessity.
The new story focuses on the main heroes who will have a significant impact on important events in the future. The main character - Newt Scamander- is shown in quite a detail, his personality portraiture is being developed even in his manner of speaking. The Oscars winner Edd Redmayne, who embodied him, made a lot of effort to make Newt live and persuasive and, albeit paradoxically (given that we are discussing a movie about wizards), is quite realistic. Unfortunately, that's probably the only such exceptional case all over this show of light, explosions, and magic.
Johnny Depp in FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD - Photo credit: twitter.com
Albus Dumbledore was one of the most intriguing characters in this part. Unfortunately, the wise future Harry Potter's mentor, Hogwarts director appears rather briefly; his past and relationship with Grindelwald are presented vaguely. So far, it's unclear how the Fantastic Beasts series will run, but Harry Potter's fans probably remember one UK Rowling interview in which she pointed out that Dumbledore's real love was Grindelwald - quite clear references to this are already in this film, while director David Yates just confirms that Dumbledore's homosexuality will be revealed even more clearly in the future.
If this is the case, we will find intriguing moral dilemmas, but all this is just a vague future to which this series may have laid the foundation. Still, to watch the performance of Jude Law, who played young Dumbledore, was interesting - the actor has enough of charisma, and to see a character who has thrown away the burden of years is like to leaf a school photo album.
All other characters are either undeveloped or annoying (or having both of these features). The mysterious Credence Barebone and the main antagonist Grindelwald were not revealed fully. In fact, in the first film he was a more real bad guy than now - this time it's not very clear for what we should hate him.
Hollywood film FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD - Photo credit: twitter.com
A welcome decision to reduce screen time for sisters Goldstein and Jakob Kovalsky, thus giving up cheap jokes and unnecessary comedy, giving the film (and series) somewhat more dark and serious. Still, the aforementioned characters are likely to come back - the romantic line between the Tina and Newt seems goes to the future. And the lightweight Queenie Goldstein seems to be used for another moral dilemma.
Some of Harry Potter's cinematic characters are becoming the bonus of this show of characters. I will not reveal who, but you will see yourself. I promise you will be really surprised.
While reading movie FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD review, check QUERLO CHAT: What kind of movies do you like?
The Technical Side Of The Movie
The Warner Bros studio has always spent much money on special effects, suits, decorations and, of course, makeup. Therefore, this tape does not differ from the previously appeared parts. Of course, their effects improve year by year. CGI seems real almost everywhere. Almost. Well, the cats that attack are too animated to our eyes. But everywhere else for the great CGI - applauds.
The camera work looks very good. I really enjoyed how the Grindelwald escape and the final scenes were presented depicting an action that looked very effective. Due to the tensions, there are enough well-recorded scenes, so the preview is so lively and enjoyable.
Eddie Redmayne and Zoe Kravitz in FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD - Photo credit: imdb.com
The soundtrack is impressive. Not only because of the new musical compositions were written by composer James Newton Howard, but also the nostalgia for original Harry Potter films. In the cinema hall, where I watched a movie when the Hogwarts showed up, people started applauding. The nostalgia has genuinely tremendous power.
Sound enhancement is enhanced on every stage of the action. This has given the film an epic feel. Video editing is not bad, but as I wrote earlier, everything went too fast here. Therefore, the chaotic story could not be avoided.
FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD: hmv.com talks to the cast - Video credit: HmV via Youtube.com
The Collective Work Of The Movie
In this film, I have been most impressed not by Eddie Redmayne, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Katherine Waterson, and Alison Sudol, who are well known to us, but by new faces. Mentioned actors succeeded without any criticism with their roles, but I think, that they were overshadowed by both Johnny Depp and Jude Law in this film.
Johnny's Depp who performed the role of Gellert Grindelwald once again proved to be a great chameleon as an actor. He has been delighting his fans for some years with the roles of all sorts of strange personages, which makes his characters look similar but already boring. But just not in this case. It was a completely fresh and stunning actor's incarnation, and there were no equal ones to him in this movie.
The Jude Law has also been great for testing Albus Dumbledore's role. I imagined this young wizard Albus exactly such. Each of his dialogues, every step, and facial mimics reminded the old director of Hogwarts, who delighted us in the six Harry Potter films.
From the new actors, Zoe Kravitz also shinned the elegance and beauty in the role of Leta Lestrange. But the other actors, appearing in the film, do not differ from the crowd. Still,it is hard to find any flaws in their performance. It is important that all emotions were natural, not artificial.
On The Final Word
On the eve of Christmas, we always want more magic and the feeling that our World is protected by some kind of good forces. It's like a habit from childhood: to seek miracles, all the magic things. Fortunately, as we grow up, we do not lose this opportunity, because with us there is always a cinema!
FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD is a pleasant gift to us from the big cinematic world.
The script is a very interesting synthesis between a sort of political thriller and love story. So it’s a sort of fusion of genres, if you like, which I think makes it quite unique in this series of films that we’ve been making based on [JK Rowling’s] work.- Director David Yates
Credit: collider.com
Summing up, I am satisfied with what I saw. I got answers to important questions, and I stayed tuned to the final. The preview itself was dynamic and not bored. Therefore I will wait for other parts in which I hope to see even more Hogwarts and famous heroes.
Just grab friends, children, parents, grandparents and run to watch the movie at the cinema, because what else can give a more magical feeling than a big screen, the scent of popcorn, and hundreds of like-minded Fantastic Beasts spectators. 
The cast of FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD - Photo credit: wallpapersden.com
FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD - the spectacularly appealing, magic movie, equated with the latest Harry Potter movies by its atmosphere and storytelling style. It brings not only a strong nostalgia for the created world by Rowling but also answers to a number of important issues to which we did not receive a response in the 2016 film.
My rating: 7.0/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 38% ( of 100)
Critics average: 6.2/10
IMDb: 6.9/10
HAVE FUN WATCHING!
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