Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

Sometimes, a franchise excites people. Sometimes... not...

A visit from Dumbledore sends Newt Scamander to Paris in the pursuit of a magical being in danger of being seduced by the criminal Grindelwald. Along with muggle Jacob, and Auror Tina, he races towards a confrontation that will divide the magic world...

I was looking forward to watching "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald", and revisiting the charming magic world of Newt and gang. The eagerness, as the movie progressed, was slowly replaced by disappointment. The story felt fragmented at times, and overly expositional. There were so many twists, that I think even M. Night Shyamalan would'be been a little exasperated.

The characters felt off in this installment of the franchise as well. In the first one, each character had depth and charm- you wanted to get to know them. Newt, Tina, Queenie, Jacob. You wanted to follow them on their adventure. That wasn't really the case here. The motivations for most of their actions felt shallow- especially Queenie's. They didn't feel like characters. They felt like nothing more than plot devices to me. This isn't helped by the fact that they introduced Newt's old flame Leta Lestrange, gave her the start of an interesting backstory... then they fridge her at the end. My shoulders slumped from the disappointment I felt.

The acting was good though- which is what made the story and character elements all the more of a let down. You can see the quirky charms that made the characters appealing in the first movie, but it's overshadowed by such a sudden shift into grimness. I just couldn't connect with them this time. The performances were muted by the muddled story, and two dimensional ways the characters were used.

I'm sad that I have to say that I don't recommend "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald". Can the franchise recover from this? I hope so. This installment though has to go into "The Ugly".

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