Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

“I can't move against Grindelwald. It has to be you.”

Filmology Rating: 1.5 out of 4

For many millennials we admired the world that J.K. Rowling created with the “Harry Potter” series, in fact thousands of us would like to live in it if given the chance. It seemed that more adventures in the Wizarding World would have been a sure fire hit, but it wasn’t with me. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them left me feeling like I was tricked into seeing a magical adventure but in reality I was just watching computer generated images flash lifelessly before my eyes. However, based of the promotional material for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald it felt like most of my problems with the previous film had been solved and I would be in for a plot driven adventure in the Wizarding World.

Shortly after the events in New York, the Wizarding World is thrown into chaos. The extremist Grindelwald, played by Johnny Depp, has escaped captivity and is on the hunt to motivate more followers to his cause.

While I normally try to stay away from the marketing campaign when talking about a movie, this one particularly bothered me. Before my screening started I was told by at least five people to protect the secrets of this film; I assumed that meant the film would offer some earth shattering information that I would leave the film rethinking the entire Harry Potter series. Instead you are left with little reveals and a story with twist and turns that feel like they were crafted by a high school freshman who dreams of becoming the next F. Scott Fitzgerald. To think that the script for this film was crafted by J.K. Rowling makes my heart hollow since she crafted such beautiful and moving worlds on the page and filled many generations with wonder.

The script for The Crimes of Grindelwald does the exact opposite of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but it does it in a completely asinine way. To make up for the lack of a plot in the previous story Rowling decided to jam way too many plot points into this film and characters that the film desperately wants us to care about. The end result in this over-correction is not caring for a single character, at least five new characters are added for this film, and the plot being overly convoluted that it barely makes any sense. Sometimes simplicity could be a films greatest strength instead of the over-eagerness to world build.

If you are selling a movie on the brand of “Fantastic Beasts” you should be trying to two things: first; make the creatures simply fantastic, like something we have never seen before; second; make those computer generated creatures look semi-realistic instead of looking like they jumped straight out of a Playstation 2 video game. What David Yates, the director of the film, needs to realize is that it’s 2018, and it takes a lot to impress an audience with visual effects and creature design now since we have traveled to the world of Pandora and far beyond it. Simply bringing adequate designs doesn’t hold up anymore, especially when you are trying to call your film “Fantastic Beasts”.

The Johnny Depp factor does need to be addressed, while I feel the fact that he is accused of assault should be enough to keep him away from this blockbuster project, the factor that I care more about in relationship with this film is that he simply can no longer act. Depp started his career off with strong performances in films like Ed Wood but he quickly became a one trick pony after his turn as Jack Sparrow in The Pirates of the Caribbean films. Grindelwald, according to the film, is suppose to be a charismatic silver tongued leader but I simply never believed any of that when confronted with Depp’s performance. The only words that I could think of were simply silly and bland, both are not words that I would ever imply with any cult leader. I never believed in the menace that was supposedly on screen, the film is indeed called “The Crimes of Grindelwald” but I never felt that horrific act of his crimes. The film is all talk but very little show when it comes to the sinister nature of evil or the holistic nature of good. The most appalling aspect of The Crimes of Grindelwald is how it rather tells you everything, rather than show you one meaningful scene.

To say that this Wizarding World series has run out of magic would be an understatement, it never started with magic and now it’s ending up like a soulless man who was just kissed by a Dementor. And the most disheartening aspect of all; this film is making me reconsider my love for the “Harry Potter” series and realizing that they might not be a masterpiece of fiction, but rather a fluke that has been deceiving us all for over twenty years.

Rating: Let It Burn