FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD (2018) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

fantastic beasts: the crimes of grindeLwald (2018) movie

Genre              |    Fantasy Action

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   134 minutes

Released         |    15 November 2018

cast

Johnny Depp ... Gellert Grindelwald
Ezra Miller ... Credence Barebone
Katherine Waterston ...
Tina Goldstein
Jude Law ... Albus Dumbledore
Zoë Kravitz ... Leta Lestrange
​Eddie Redmayne ... Newt Scamander
Alison Sudol ... Queenie Goldstein
Callum Turner ... Theseus Scamander
Dan Fogler ... Jacob Kowalski

director

David Yates

writer

​J.K. Rowling ... (screenplay)

cinematographer

​Philippe Rousselot

music

​James Newton Howard

film editor

Mark Day

---

box office result

Worldwide               $? million

Australia                 $? million

North America        $? million

---

the best dialogue

Gellert Grindelwald: Magic blooms... only in rare souls. Still, we must skulk in shadows. But the old ways serve us no longer.

Albus Dumbledore: I take it you've heard to rumors. Grindelwald had a vision that he would rise to dominance over the Wizarding world.
Newt Scamander: So you're asking me to help hunt him down.

Leta Lestrange: You're too good, Newt. You never met a monster you couldn't love.

---

FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD (2018) MOVIE IMAGES

Images

Cast Photo (Hi-Res)

Images

Cast Photo (Hi-Res)

FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD (2018) STORY SYNOPSIS

​Magizoologist Newt Scamander joins forces with wizard Albus Dumbledore to battle the devious Gellert Grindelwald in 1920s Paris.

FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD (2018) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date  15 November 2018
Pop ​Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐

J.K Rowling performs her very own magic trick with the latest film in the Potterverse movie franchise, FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD. The world’s most recognised author has waved her wand over the FANTASTIC BEASTS franchise, retrofitting the main character, along with its story focus, in an effort to satisfy the worldwide legion of Harry Potter fans. Rowling, the sole credited writer of this new film, takes the darker elements of Newt Scamander’s first adventure - the 2016 film FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM - and turns them into a sprawling tale that is as much about establishing a mythology for the planned trilogy of films that will follow this latest entry as it is about delivering a satisfying stand-alone fantasy story.  

POTTER purists will be delighted to hear that THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD shares more DNA with the seven HARRY POTTER films than it does its direct  predecessor.

The 2016 FANTASTIC BEASTS film featured both light and dark elements, but there was a whimsy about Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander that made it less about the magic and more about the humanity of the central character and the friends he makes during his escapades in New York. The ending of FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM did signal the introduction of a “Big Bad”, Johnny Depp’s Gellert Grindelwald. The new film expands dramatically upon the Grindelwald character, connecting him directly with established Harry Potter characters, freeing Rowling to cross-pollinate stories from the previous saga into Scamander’s story.

The prequel status of the FANTASTIC BEASTS franchise opens the door for the introduction of even more HARRY POTTER characters as each progressive film draws closer to the established mythology. It won’t be a surprise to see the name Potter dropped directly into the next FANTASTIC BEASTS film. The connections established by THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD are too strong to ignore. Bringing this new film closer to Rowling’s beloved franchise brings a distinct change for the new film’s tone...

To put the significance of the tonal leap into perspective, imagine the next film after HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE was HALF-BLOOD PRINCE. That’s the quantum of change between the 2016 FANTASTIC BEASTS film and this follow-up effort.

Potterverse Director David Yates returns to helm this latest adventure, but he has the unenviable task of turning Rowling’s sprawling story into a coherent feature film. For the most part, he manages to get the job done, but he certainly has his hands full. Credit should also be paid to Mark Day, the long-standing HARRY POTTER Film Editor, who has now pieced together six movies in the franchise. So much is going on in THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD, it’s hard for the viewer to keep up and it’s a credit to Day’s skill at his craft and knowledge of his subject matter that he is able to cut scenes in a manner that provide the necessary information and keep things moving without the film descending into a shambolic mess!

Some scenes do sacrifice too much, leaving the viewer to fill in plot points that should otherwise have been addressed or having characters disappear for extended periods of the story only to appear later, mid-scene with no explanation as to where they’ve been or what they were doing. The biggest victim of this is Dan Fogler’s Jacob Kowalski, whose performance in the 2016 film helped to distinguish the FANTASTIC BEASTS franchise with his inclusion as a Muggle (non-magic) character as one of the main players.

The plot of the second film revolves around Johnny Depp’s Grindelwald, who, at the end of the 2016 film, was imprisoned by the Magical Congress of the United States of America. The new film wastes no time in unwinding much of what happened in the final part of the previous film, allowing Grindelwald to escape in an elaborate prologue sequence that seems just a little too contrived for its own good. Grindelwald’s flight from justice frees Rowling to indulge Potter fans at about the exact moment the character’s magical shackles are freed.

Depp doesn’t bring anything to Grindelwald that viewers haven’t seen him do before, but his presence brings the philosophical battle between tradition and neoteric into clearer focus. Despite the use of Ezra Miller’s Credence Barebone as an uncontrollable destructive force, the previous film didn’t establish a genuine antagonist until near its end. Rowling takes a more proactive position this time around, positioning Grindelwald as an agent of forceful change, prepared to endorse dreadful actions into order to justify his quest to break free of conservative magic and indulge freedom of thought & action at any cost.

It’s interesting that Rowling chooses not to use Grindelwald as an out-and-out villain in terms of the Magical world; which is different to Harry Potter’s Voldemort. Grindelwald and his followers target Muggles in an effort to antagonise the more conservative elements of the Magic world, hoping they fall into the trap of protecting the non-Magics at the expense of their own kind who offer a more progressive view of how the World should function.

Grindelwald is yet another fictional example is but a mere reflection of the entitled view that has become the modus operandi of many inhabitants of Planet Earth within current 21st century culture. To the more conservative, older generation, this non-conformist approach should be wound back, but to others, acceptance of their non-accepting ways is seductive and an endorsement that discord is an alternative to order.

THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD is very opaque in its politics. Grindelwald isn’t right, but he’s not necessarily wrong. At first, Newt is not convinced that Grindelwald represents as significant a threat as the Ministry of Magic suggest. When pressed by his own brother, who works for the Ministry, Scamander decides to abdicate responsibility, choosing to sit on the sidelines as events unfold around him. The introduction of Albus Dumbledore all but guarantees Scamander has to become involved...

Dumbledore is such a significant character in Rowling’s stories, it’s easy to argue that he’s more important than Harry Potter. The new film does nothing to suggest otherwise.

Casting was always going to hold the key to introducing a younger Dumbledore. With a sigh of relief, Jude Law turns out to be an outstanding choice to play the Wizard.

As the story unfolds, Rowling reveals that Dumbledore is like a magical convergence point. So much of what has happened in the past, what happens in the present and events yet to unfold place him smack bang in the centre. Like he will do with Harry in the future, the youthful Dumbledore is as skilled a manipulator as he is teacher, politician and friend. He convinces Newt that he must become involved with the pursuit of Grindelwald.

There is so much going on in THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD that it’s far easier to suggest those who love the HARRY POTTER films to just go and see this new film without hesitation. Those who liked the first FANTASTIC BEASTS film are still catered for, even though there’s not as much Newt, Jacob, Tina or Queenie. They’re all present, but they’re not the focus.

The CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD is an exercise is retconning the FANTASTIC BEASTS franchise to get it into shape for the remaining planned films. Non-Potter fans will be challenged by the speed at which characters come and go, but, that’s not uncommon for Rowling’s magical creation. It’s never an unexpected surprise to see one of her characters pop up in a later story and impact it in a way that was has greater significance than the character’s original appearance would have otherwise suggested.

There’s more going on in this film than many may give it credit for, but it moves at such a pace that exploration of the social and political themes it touches upon are, at best, surface level. Without excusing the shortcomings of this film, it may be far to hold back a more critical judgement in favour of what unfolds over the course of the next FANTASTIC BEASTS film. The HARRY POTTER series proved not all secrets needed to be revealed at once. In the meantime, enjoy THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD comfortable in the knowledge there’s now more to this story than anyone thought...

FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD (2018) USEFUL LINKS

​Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) - IMDb
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - Wikipedia
​Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) - Rotten Tomatoes 

digital updates delivered

facebook

instagram