“Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them” had an easy and simple plot. Fantastic Beasts get released in New York, get them back in the case. Wow! An Obscurious. Wait. Colin Farrell is Johnny Depp?! End.
Perhaps J. K. Rowling should keep in mind that the landscape of a book is different from that of a movie. As a reader of the books, J. K. Rowling loves her details, the little clues she drops here and there for the big unravelling in the end. It’s a satisfying reading experience because you can go through the details, the plot and subplots at your own pace and you can go back a few pages if you weren’t sure. But the same can’t be said about movies. For one thing, trying to process that much information and detail in a little more than two hours is exhausting. Plus the sub-plot within sub-plot and the number of new characters, each trying to steal the spotlight makes the story all the more confusing.
There were times when I just wanted to grab a pen and paper and start drawing charts and tables just to be able to follow the story.
The film, “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” is the second in a planned series of five movies and was written more of a chapter in a book rather than a story in itself and this may come off as “draggy” to non readers.
Sit comfortably in your seat, it will be some time before the plot picks up.
Months after the events of “Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them” Credence (Ezra Miller) survived and is on the run, looking for his mother.
He is now accompanied by Nagini (Claudia Kim). How he survived I don’t know and what is his relationship to Nagini is also a question to me. I don’t know how they met or if they’re in a romantic relationship or what. I was honestly disappointed that there was not much on Nagini, I was hoping for more of her story, maybe in the next films.
Hold on to your seats, this movie has a lot of questions.
The Ministry of Magic wants Credence captured. Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) wants Credence. Dumbledore (Jude Law) wants Newt to save Credence.
So our reluctant and unlikely hero. The ever so cute Eddie Redmayne is back at it with his magical case and no-Maj sidekick of sorts Jacob (Dan Folger) as he tries to reach Credence before his brother Thesesus (Callum Turner) and the rest of the Ministry’s Aurors or worse Grindelwald’s growing network gets to Credence.
Simple enough? Errr… Not quite. You see, there’s this business surrounding Credence’s parentage and I guess this is where much of the confusion comes in. This is where you’d want to make that diagram I was telling you about. Anyways, I’ll just leave it at that so as not to spoil everything.
The big reveal in the end is worth the wait, even if you feel as though J. K. Rowling has been holding on to some secrets. You’ll either be totally surprised and blown away or you’d feel betrayed by Rowling.
Potterheads will be debating and discussing right after the movie for sure.
There are a couple of sequences that make it worth seeing on the big screen (IMAX 3D if you can) I felt like I was holding a wand myself and casting spells as well. The Beasts for one were more fantastic. That Chinese Taowu is a new favorite. The Niffler is not just cute in this one but proves itself very useful.
6.5/10. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is now showing.