Ever since we got a whiff of the trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018), Harry Potter fans have been dying to see where this prequel movie was headed.
They say be careful what you wish for because after the first parter Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them (2016) debuted, Potter fans were left wanting for more.
In the second part of this series, we were given just the slightest glimpse of major characters. We got to see Leta Lestrange and even Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) in action. But we still didn’t get to see the actual crimes of Grindelwald, who is the original big baddie before Voldemort came into the picture.
Read on for our review of one of the most anticipated movies of this year.
We got what we wanted or did we?
Like most fans, we all wished that after the end of the Harry Potter films that this wasn’t all that J. K. Rowling had to offer us. And it seems that those executives from Warner Bros also had their own reasons (read money) to keep the Potterverse going. Their plan? To go for a prequel series loosely based on Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts book.
Then two years ago, we had a reason to be grateful when Fantastic Beasts (2016) came out.
The film then left us wanting more and with a ton of questions, some of which include:
- Who is Credence Barebone?
- Who is this Leta Lestrange?
- How is she related to Tonks, Narcissa and Beatrix?
- How did things work out with Tina and Newt?
- Was Collin Farrell’s character even real? Do we get to see him again? The answer to that one is sadly no. (that’ll be the only spoiler in this review, folks).
With every answer, we got more questions
The story tries to answer all these questions but at the same time, it leaves us questioning everything. JK Rowling once mentioned that Dumbledore was in love with Grindelwald, and viewers thought that the movie could delve into this subject. However that was not to be.
Another thing the story didn’t do was tell us more about Newt’s family. Fans will still have to wait on how he’s related to the ever-lovable Hagrid from the later movies (and he is related to Hagrid, right?).
Some of the other subplots in the movie will require a huge leap of faith on your part. You’ll have to see it to believe it.
Particularly on the matter of who is Credence? How did he survive? How is he stable without Newt or Tina to help him?
Not a lot of effort was put into portraying the young version of Minerva McGonagall, who went on to become one of Harry’s teachers in the later movies. Maybe I’m basing this observation too much on how she was portrayed in the original Harry Potter series, but I still feel they should’ve done more here.
Another one of those confounding plots involve a blood pact between Dumbledore and Grindelwald and how they can’t fight each other because of it. We know from Snape that breaking a blood pact would kill the one who goes back on their promise. We also know no one’s tried to break one.
That being said, then how in the Wizarding World will Dumbledore defeat the Dark Lord? That’s the hook for the whole series it seems.
The Production
The producers really went all out in this one, like they have done for previous films in the franchise. The effort put into introducing new characters. If you though you’d seen it all after Newt’s first book there are quite a few interesting new creatures in this edition.
Particularly Maledictus Nagini. Yeah she’s as familiar as her name.
#FantasticBeasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was "totally worth the wait." Now playing in theaters. Get tickets: https://t.co/JDjIHC6MsJ pic.twitter.com/KXBa9lNddG
— Fantastic Beasts (@FantasticBeasts) November 17, 2018
Although not all the new characters were given as much screen time, we’ll get to explore them later. In the next film I mean. In case you didn’t know, there will be five movies in total, with three more to go.
Concluding Thoughts
I personally felt that they could’ve done better with how the whole story was laid out, from the sub-plots to the major beats. The movie’s sub-plots were not impressionable and questionable to say the least. There were many a plot holes that we could get into but that would mean spoilers. So mum’s the word here.
The idea of five films is great and hopefully, Warner Brothers should take care not to drag the whole series over the course of these films. The next installment of Fantastic Beasts is currently scheduled for November 20, 2020.
