Hello!
And welcome to one of the most painful reviews I’ve ever written. This is Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
IMDb summary: The second installment of the “Fantastic Beasts” series set in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World featuring the adventures of magizoologist Newt Scamander.
Writing
J.K.Rowling wrote the screenplay for the second film: she started this prequel franchise and it doesn’t look like she will let anybody else play in her sandbox. And I really wish she would, because Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was really poorly written.
To begin with, why was this movie called Fantastic Beasts? All of the beasts that were included in the story were completely irrelevant and unnecessary: they were just stuffed into the narrative to justify the title. And the filmmakers know how unnecessary the beasts were: the logo of the film out ‘Fantastic Beasts’ in tiny letters in the corner and gigantic ‘The Crimes of Grindelwald’ in the center. They should have just dropped the first part and have every movie named differently.
Sadly, that wasn’t the beasts were not the only problem with the script. The whole script was one giant problem. The film had way too many plotlines: it tried to continue the plotlines set up by the first film, introduced new storylines, and tried to explain HP lore from years ago. And it just basically failed at everything. The whole narrative felt confused because the storylines did not have much to do with one another or the connections felt forced. A lot of the plotlines by themselves were boring or inconsistent. I did mostly enjoy the hero(s) plotlines but found the villain’s one to be very weak: preachy but not persuasive (the only part of the villain’s arc I enjoyed was the attempt to connect wizarding world to real-life history in his final speech). I also think that the movie had too many characters, all fighting for spotlight rather than sharing the movie like an ensemble should. The twists also did not make much sense but were just meant to shock. The references or the explanations of HP role also had no real place in the story and were just cheap fan service. A fanservice for only hardcore fans, because as a casual fan, I could either not get it. Or those references/explanations were new inventions by J.K.Rowling that she just tried to fit in there. Basically, if the first one felt like it was a return to the beloved world of magic, this one was the death of it. This movie marks the first time that I don’t agree with the canon: honestly, fanfiction and fan theories make more sense.
Directing
David Yates, the director of the first film and 4 last HP films, directed The Crimes of Grindelwald and did a decent job. The movie looked gooded visually and did look like an HP movie (not in the third act: it turned into Hobbit for the final battle). The pacing was not the best: the film felt slow and long but that was mostly because the story was unengaging and confusing.
Acting
The movie had a gigantic cast. Eddie Redmayne was a stand-out: charismatic, loveable, and unique. Katherine Waterston and Dan Fogler were also really good: as the more obvious hero of the story and the comedic relief/audience stand-in, respectively. Alison Sudol was also good even though the script made some weird choices with her character. Ezra Miller didn’t have that much to do despite his character being so integral to the plot. Zoë Kravitz impact. Callum Turner and Claudia Kim were fine too: they didn’t have anything to do with the story, but, hopefully, something is awaiting her characters in the future. Johnny Depp was fine but I have stopped caring about his performances at this point. Jude Law was a very promising Dumbledore, but, again, he should have been in the film more!
In short, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was not a great film. It looked pretty but lacked where it counted: in the story department.
Rate: 2.7/5
Trailer: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
geekycheekyalwayssneaky.wordpress.com 
I know how you feel. Writing a review for this film was painful for me too. When I left the cinema, I was both angry, and laughing at how terrible it was.
Throughout the film, me and a friend would chuckle from time to time because we were just so lost and distraught by the movie😕
Me too. I literally facepalmed twice, first when Newt couldn’t just say to Tina “I’m still single!” and then with the final twist.
Agreed. This was a great disappointment. Dire storytelling. Poor cinema.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Good review. To me, I’m more in the “unpopular” opinion category for this movie as I found it enjoyable. I already saw it twice. Yes, I agree with the story needed more focus and structure (Rowling needed an editor on the script), but I found it to be entertaining as the movie brought into the focus the larger narrative of the Fantastic Beasts franchise. Do I think it could’ve been better? Yes. However, the movie was still entertaining and kept me invested in the story, which laid the groundwork for what is to come. That being said, I prefer the first Fantastic Beasts film.
I’m glad you enjoyed the film! Your comment makes me think maybe I should give the movie another chance and just go see it again without any expectations. 🙂
Haha…nice. Its still good and think a lot are judging the movie a bit too hard. Granted, I believe the movie could’ve been better and was more setup for the rest of the series, but I still loved it.