Friday, 7 December 2018

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of GrindelWald (2018)

There are moments in a film where you must sacrifice time for exposition and set-up but I've never seen an entire film just given up for it.


Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald once again follows Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) as he is employed by Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) to thwart the plans of a magical fanatic known as Grindelwald (Johnny Depp). However, Newt is also crossing seas to rescue his friend Tina (Katherine Waterston) who has mysteriously disappeared.

With the announcement that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was going to formed into a 5 film franchise, everyone knew of the danger that The Hobbit brought; stretching one film over multiple films isn't a good idea as pacing, key evdnts and character arcs will be damaged due to this decision. The end result of this is having an entire film as set-up for another 3 films that are all now in danger of never existing due to this one falling so flat.

A character like Tina, who was the moving force of progression for the first film is now reduced to an objective marker for Newt and Jacob (Dan Fogler) in a nonsense sub-plot based on a potential romance that isn't resolved an only used to get Newt to a location closer to Grindelwald. An equally disappointing situation occurs with Newt's brother, Theseus (Callum Turner), who is brought in to provide an opposite side of the Scamander family, the literal fear of Newt revealed to us during the film as Theseus works for the Ministry of Magic; a bureaucratic organisation that has opposed Newt's missions at every opportunity. The character is once again wasted on the franchise's need to stretch the plot. Theseus is introduced right at the start of the film as the reverse side of Newt's coin and looks to be a potentially interesting new character, then BOOM! Side-lined to the role of a Ministry grunt for the rest of the film as the majority of the original cast trudge through a plot that is barely held together by brand new, constantly repeated exposition that's focused on either Credence (Ezra Miller) and his constantly changing origins, Leta Lestrange's (Zoë Kravitz) shoe-horned involvement in that backstory or the apparent "prophecy" that is never actually said in full or without a thick French accent so good luck getting any clarity from that.

One main selling point of the first Fantastic Beasts film was that it wasn't just about wizards, it was a zoological adventure nearing Steve Irwin levels of fun as Newt recklessly endangers his life in hilarious ways as he tries to rescue and protect the creatures he loves so much. This combination of comedy with the scary tones of the Credence/Mr Graves (Colin Farrell) storyline made the first film so successful as it formed the same basis of "magic" that made the first few Harry Potter films so captivating but now these beautiful and charming creatures are reduced to being tools for Newt to throw out on a whim when he needs them, like some sort of warped Pokémon style strategy. We get glimpses of a bunch of new creatures and habitats in Newt's home near the beginning of the film and then the only one actually integrated into the story from that point is the Zouwu, a giant cat-like creature that Newt frees from a travelling circus and tames, only then use as a repeat scapegoat for the rest of the film as he opens his suitcase to unleash it in a manner that would suit him screaming "LOOK AT ME! I HAVE A CAT-DRAGON!".

In summary, I really wanted the Fantastic Beasts franchise to continue as 5 powerful films that explore more and more aspects of the magical world; more creatures, more places, more magic, maybe even more wizarding schools but instead we have magical Steve Irwin VS magical Hitler, all brought about because a bearded teacher with a funny glove said so.

1.5/5 - Magic just lost it's magic.


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