fantastic beasts the crimes of grindelwald

For example, there's the character of Leta Lestrange. But movies will always work for some audience segments more than others-that shouldn't be a flaw. It has more capacity to surprise that audience than newcomers. What’s worse is at almost every turn, it weaves in broad strokes created only to set up the next movie, few of which add to what’s actually happening on screen.The references to various, unexpected parts of Potter lore certainly makes this a film more ideally suited for longtime fans. ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’ is even less concerned with telling a concise, satisfying story than its predecessor.

However, Rowling’s script goes the opposite way. “It needs to have an interesting story with dynamic characters and only tangentially tease toward future films that may or may not happen. Rowling, in origin-story mode – about building a wall, literal and metaphoric, to keep out scary things people don’t understand…the real stars here are the beasts, supposedly ugly, weird and dangerous, but paragons of FX creativity in service of genuine ideas.” But here it is, folks, a not-so-innocuous family film – from J.K. “The last place you’d expect to find the first anti-Trump blockbuster of the Donald’s presidency is a Harry Potter-related prequel. Rowling fans weep in frustration, provided they can even keep their eyes open.”

“An excruciating bore just barely enlivened by stray glimpses of Hogwarts, a flicker of gay romance and a menagerie of computer-generated creepy-crawlies, ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’ is enough to make J.K. “There are something like a dozen major characters and half a dozen storylines in ‘Crimes of Grindelwald.’ In addition, there are subplots within subplots, supporting characters with their own supporting characters, Easter eggs butting up against other Easter eggs, and secrets stacked on top of secrets, until the whole precarious pile comes tumbling down in a chaotic third act.”

Most of the surface pleasures of filmic Potterdom (the chiaroscuro tones, the overqualified character actors, the superb costuming, James Newton Howard’s warmly enveloping score) have survived intact, but real magic is in short supply. “The noisiest, most rhythmless, and least coherent entry in the Wizarding World saga since Alfonso Cuarón first gave the franchise its sea legs in 2004, ‘Grindelwald’ feels less like ‘The Hobbit’ than a trawl through the appendixes of ‘The Silmarillion’ - a confusing jumble of new characters and eye-crossing marginalia.

Fantastic beasts the crimes of grindelwald