Saturday, November 17, 2018

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018, PG-13)


As someone who genuinely loves Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find ThemNewt Scamander forever! – I was kind of disappointed by this film.  While it has some good points and some delightfully-magical moments, there are numerous places where I find it doesn’t measure up to its predecessor, and I admit to being apprehensive about what’s to come for this franchise (some spoilers for the first movie.)

A fair amount has happened since the events of the first film, both in the personal lives of our heroes and for the greater wizarding world at large.  Largest on the horizon is the threat of Gellert Grindelwald, who’s escaped captivity and is back to spreading his message of magical superiority, this time in Paris.  He’s also on the lookout for Credence, the Obscurial from the first movie.  In fact, the whole wizarding world seems to be looking for Credence – in addition to the potential in the raw, destructive force of his uncontrolled magic, there are prophecies afoot about him possibly being the lost scion of an important Pureblood family, and everyone is after him.  It’s hunting for Credence that brings Tina to Paris, and she’s shortly followed by Queenie, with Newt and Jacob coming after.  All of their relationships have been somewhat shaken up and changed, and as they alternately search for Credence, try to discover the truth of his parentage, and make plans against Grindelwald, they attempt to figure out where they all stand with each other now.

There are a number of reasons this movie doesn’t quite come together for me, the first being that it really doesn’t, well, come together.  It feels like there are plots for at least three different films going on here, not all of them compatible with one another.  This results in an overstuffed narrative, as well as jarring changes in tone that don’t really mesh coherently.  Additionally, I feel that most of the main characters are just too “involved” for my liking.  I love Newt’s position in the first movie as the well-meaning magizoologist who accidentally causes havoc in New York and inadvertently gets caught up in this bigger plot.  Here, though, he’s being courted by the Ministry (which doesn’t particularly like him but wants to use him,) he’s got people tracking his movements, and people use his full name in that significant way that indicates that this guy is a Big Deal.  And that doesn’t feel like Newt to me.  I’m of a similar mind about Credence’s storyline.  I really like what they did with him in the last movie, and I have no interest in finding out whether he’s a long-lost whoever with literal prophecies written about him – sometimes, I think characters can take on a greater narrative importance when they’re less contextually important.  There are just some really jarring character moments as well, scenes that feel less rooted in who the characters are/how they’d react and more in what would maximize the “twist” factor, which leaves the big moments feeling hollow and inauthentic.

The elephant in the room is of course Johnny Depp as Grindelwald.  Even before taking the domestic abuse allegations into account, I would’ve preferred to keep Colin Farrell in the role anyway, since a) Farrell is amazing in the first movie and b) as much as I used to adore Depp, his work has been pretty lazy and uninspired in recent years.  But, as with my thoughts on Matthew Wiener and The Romanoffs, I can’t watch Depp in the film without having that real-world context in the back of my mind, and I’m disappointed that this is the way the production went with.  While this is an admittedly-good performance, better than I’ve seen from Depp in quite some time, it obviously isn’t “worth” everything else that goes along with it.

New characters are a mixed bag.  I see potential with both Zoë Kravitz’s Leta Lestrange and Claudia Kim’s Nagini that feels wasted here, and while Jude Law pulls me in with his performance as a younger Dumbledore, he doesn’t feel all that Dumbledore to me.  William Nadylam, who I’m not familiar with, does a nice job with his character Yusuf Kama, and Victoria Yeates (Sister Winifred from Call the Midwife) does well enough with a brief bit of thinly-written comic relief.

What I like best is the stuff that reminds me the most of the first movie:  Newt and Jacob’s friendship, Newt being kind/adorkable, and Newt interacting with some fantastic beasts, the latter of which we don’t get as much of here.  (If you’re sensing a common theme, you’re right on.)  I also continue to love Newt’s easy, confident command of his magic, and he and Tina have a few lovely scenes together that (for my money) exceed their dynamic from the first film.  Plus, major points to whoever cast young Newt and Leta for some Hogwarts-schooldays flashbacks, ‘cause both of them are terrific.

Warnings

Strong thematic elements (including allusions to rape,) violence, and scary moments for kids.

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