Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Review: This Magic Spell Doesn't Totally Spellbound

Sethumadhavan

For fans of J.K.Rowling & the Harry Potter series it was tough to consider that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was to bring the curtains down upon the magical wizarding world that one had so gotten used to over the years. Of course there are many who continue to believe that the movies were not able to recapture the original charm of the books, but that’s a separate debate in itself. I’ve always believed that with a book the reader is free to let his/her imagine run riot, something that happens all the more with books of say a J.K.Rowling or J.R.R.Tolkien. A movie on the other hand will always find it difficult to handle this aspect, bogged down by budget constraints and many other issues. Hence with the announcement of the Fantastic Beasts series there was obviously a lot of excitement among fans and followers of the wizarding world.

The first film in the franchise, set 70 years or so before the Harry Potter series, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) was a good start to the franchise, giving us an insight into its world and the important characters. Hence it was but natural to hope for a favourable outing from director David Yates and writer J.K.Rowling with the second instalment, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (hereafter referred to as Fantastic Beasts 2). The film does take off right from where the first film left off, the action starts off in New York where we see a dangerous Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) escaping when he is being transported to London. Grindelwald is now on a mission to raise pure blood wizards to take over the world and rule over muggles (non magical people) as well. In this endeavour he feels that he would require the support of Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller), who on the other hand is trying to find out his true identity.

The action shifts from New York to London at first and then to Paris, Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) requests Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) to stop Grindelwald before he could become a worldwide threat. Newt has his own issues and doesn’t agree straight away. Nevertheless the rest of the tale is all about how Newt goes about trying to face off with Grindelwald & what happens to Credence. Truth be told the basic plot does have a few hook points and has enough meat to play it up for the rest of the franchise. But unfortunately J.K.Rowling’s writing incorporates way too many sub plots and connections to the Harry Potter series that it becomes difficult to keep a track of some of the happenings after a while. It’s nice to see a glimpse of Hogwarts, the legendary dining hall of the Wizarding School, a casual game of Quidditch going on in the background etc., they do ensure an instant connect. But it looks like a certain extra eagerness to make the overlap between the 2 series (Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts) appear visible, a tad too visible in fact.

The VFX work continues to impress but I wished we could have seen some more of Newt’s magical creatures, a highlight of sorts in the previous film. With way too many characters in this film, there’s hardly any scope for the director to explore the romantic angle between Newt and Tina (Katherine Waterston). Comparatively one sees a lot more chemistry between Queenie (Alison Sudol) and Jacob (Dan Fogler) instead. The film boasts of an impressive star cast including the likes of Jude Law and Johnny Depp and thankfully they have been utilized well in the film. Jude Law plays a slightly subtle version of Dumbledore while Johnny Depp does what is expected out of him in his portrayal of Grindelwald. Of the others Zoe Kravitz as Leta Lestrange and Ezra Miller as Credence Barebone get well noticed. Eddie Redmayne is effective once again in the lead, just that this time around his scope to hog the centre stage is reduced a bit.

Ultimately Fantastic Beasts 2 is not totally a wasted effort from David Yates and J.K.Rowling, but nothing to gush over either.

Bottomline:

Fantastic Beasts 2 is a film to remind fans of the wizarding world and J.K.Rowling that expectation levels from the franchise have shot up considerably, hence anything just about average will not do.

Rating: 2.5/5