Logan Sork Film Reviews
The Crimes of Grindelwald
The first installment in the Fantastic Beasts series was an unexpectedly pleasant surprise. It continued to delve deeper into the wizarding world, showing off the creativity within that world as well as giving us some interesting new characters to follow. One of the biggest problems however was the film’s unfocused narrative which felt low stakes ad really didn’t amount to anything. That being said, the ending set up a story with great stakes and epic proportions, one that I was very much looking forwards to. While it has some great creativity and interesting The Crimes of Grindelwald has no real sense of direction and can’t seem to decide what the story should be resulting in a film that’s poorly paced, dull and too complicated for its own good.
The Crimes of Grindelwald is directed by David Yates and is the second installment in the Harry Potter prequel series written by J.K. Rowling. The film picks up where the first one ended as dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) escapes from prison and makes his way to Paris to recruit his followers. Months later, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) learns that Grindelwald is after the powerful dark wizard credence (Ezra Miller) and is tasked by Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) to track him down. Before he leaves, however, Newt learns that Tina (Katherine Waterston) is also after Credence and goes along with his friend Jacob (Dan Fogler) to find Tina and Credence. Meanwhile other parties track down Credence and Grindelwald, including Newt’s Brother, Theseus (Callum Turner) and his former flame Leta Lestrange (Zoe Kravitz) as well as French wizard Yusuf Kama (William Nadylam), who has a connection to Credence. All of these characters must race against one another to find Credence before Grindelwald uses him in his evil plot to wreak havoc on the world.
From a technical standpoint this film is excellent. The direction, cinematography and visual effects work in tandem to give us a film that is a visual feast for the eyes. There are some great scenes in this sprinkled throughout, including an excellent introduction that proves just how much of a threat Grindelwald is as well as a great finale in which everything comes to a satisfying end. There are also a couple of good twists that I didn’t see coming and genuinely shocked me. The beasts are once again fantastic and are a real joy to watch. The film also has some great creativity, which isn’t as explored as much as I would’ve liked.
The best element in the film is the cast and characters. The returning cast from the original film shines as the actors get to expand on their roles while the audience learns new things about them. The new cast members are also excellent as they manage to hold their own against the new comers while adding a fresh perspective on the ever-growing story, even actors who don’t have the best s=characters give a great performance. The real standouts of the movie however, are Johnny Depp as Grindelwald and Jude Law as a young Dumbledore. Depp is always fun to watch, but here he gets to paly a great villain and steals every scene he’s in, proving that he’s a great villain in the making. On the flip side, Jude Law brings a nuanced portrayal as one of the wizarding world’s most iconic characters, hinting at some complex emotions between him and Grindelwald that could be explored in later installments.
While the characters are good, they are unfortunately trapped inside J.K. Rowling’s convoluted snail’s pace plot. Judging by the synopsis, we should have a high stake, fast paced hunt as multiple parties battle for control of a certain person. Instead, we spend a large chunk of the movie focusing on different mysteries, each of which eat into each other’s screen time. One moment we’re trying to discover who Credence’s mother is next we are exploring Leta’s past then we move to Grindelwald’s evil schemes then to Dumbledore’s past. The film can never decide what story to focus on and jumps back and forth between the different stories so often that the film is actually quite difficult to follow.
One of the rules of screenwriting is to show don’t tell and Rowling clearly ignores that rule. Characters all too often blurt out exposition, causing the film to slow down even more than it already was. There are moments all too often in this movie where characters stand and talk, before walking then standing and talking again. There are scenes that drag on for what seems like forever, before moving to another scene of exposition. What’s even worse is that there are points in the movie where what they are talking about makes no sense or has nothing to do with the story. Without spoiling too much, there’s a certain item that some characters talk about in great detail. I had no ide what the item was because it was never properly introduced, and it never came into play in the story of this film.
This movie is defiantly a mixed bag. When it’s good, it’s really good. When it’s bad it’s almost unwatchable. Though the film starts and ends strong, the middle is so drawn out and slowly paced that it makes the whole film come across as dull. While there are bright spots in the film from the direction, creatures and characters, they are ultimately let down by a confusing story. Here’s hoping that these characters get a better story in the next, because if the pacing isn’t fixed, the next installments will be anything but magical.
5/10