Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – Film Review

In an effort to thwart Grindelwald’s (Johnny Depp) plans of raising pure-blood wizards to rule over all non-magical beings, Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) enlists his former student Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), 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.

And… just like that, the Wizarding World franchise took a gigantic tumble. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald has a nasty reputation within the franchise’s community for being the worst film in the entire series, and it’s true. I will say that the film isn’t awful by any means, but it is certainly not spell-binding like the other films that came before it are.

The main problem with this film lies within its extremely muddled and messy script that doesn’t seem to know what kind of movie it wants to be. On one hand, it seems like the film is aiming to be a direct continuation of the first Fantastic Beasts, trying to explore more about the character of Grindelwald. Another section of the film feels like it’s trying to be a strange romantic-comedy, and another portion feels like it’s trying to be a set-up movie for a third installment.

Obviously, it’s chaotic to watch so many different tones clash into one massive movie. But there’s another problem stacked on top of all of that – the film is hugely boring for the most part. Aside from the great first act, the rest of the movie feels quite uneventful and tedious.

Seriously, what fun is there to be had in watching Newt and Jacob mosey around town looking for something? What fun is there to be had watching Credence Barebone whine and complain for the whole movie? A second movie in a franchise should be able to naturally expand upon characters that were set up in the first film, but The Crimes of Grindelwald has no interest in doing that.

The performances here, thankfully, are great. Eddie Redmayne is once again charming and energetic as Newt Scamander, as is Dan Fogler as the bumbling but lovable Jacob Kowalski. Zoe Kravitz is also wonderful in the role of Leta Lestrange, one of the only legitimately interesting characters in the film.

All of the action sequences are breathtaking to behold, even though there are only a couple to be found here. It is genuinely confusing why Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is so long, however, because it’s basically an over two-hour setup for a third film with some solid performances and fun action sequences sprinkled in with little else to offer.