Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Lights in the Dusk

Clear parallels to rise of fascism & a call to action are relevant & necessary, but too many subplots & supporting characters mean actors have no room to develop. If the first film felt like a complete work with its own story & intentions this feels like a long set-up to a third installment. Grindelwald's address to the public assembly (with apocalyptic premonition of 20th century atrocity) is striking cinema though.

msmichel

While visually succulent this latest entry gets lost in its own mythology and really just winds up being the middle of a story without resolution or even a crescendo of drama or high conflict. Much of the cast is relegated to such tiny roles that they barely register save lead Redmayne and a well cast Zoe Kravitz. Never boring exactly but not incredibly stirring either.

Filipe F. Coutinho

The Fantastic Beasts saga continues to show me things I've never seen in a film, and it features the best visual effects out there. It uses them not only for spectacle, but also for humor and whimsy, and does so in a very old-Hollywood way. That's why it's so disappointing that this installment feels so incomplete. The plot is unnecessarily convoluted, the characters aren't fully realized, and the pace drags.

Ethan

The creatures in this film are fantastic but with a lot of layers and plot going on this film kind of feels flat and confusing. I feel like these stories would have been better in print.

Lynch/Fellini

I didn't hate it. In fact I thought it was good, passable entertainment. Not Rowling at her best, but still shows her gift of creating likable characters and fun situations.

Dylan Riquelme

I'd actually give it a 3.5 but i can't do that here. Honestly while i definitely admit that this movie has problems, and that sadly it might be the worst movie in the Harry Potter universe so far i honestly liked it. Quite a few things could've been done better but i feel like the sequels might fix that (though it shouldn't be a problem in the first place). I really think this movie is not as bad as so many say it is

Diderot

I think it just has a good cast, so it's enjoyable, but I can't stand franchise movies like this that aren't self-contained. It never gets anywhere with the little bits of interesting plot and character that it makes available. Corporate filmmaking at maybe its most okay.

Evan Schafer

To be perfectly frank, while I loved the cast and the way the story unfolded, I literally found myself bored for a good two-thirds of the film. Johnny Depp and Redmayne were great and the visual effects, spectacular, but I unfortunately feel obligated to say that J.K. Rowling needs to learn to edit as her script was FAR too lengthy, or Yates' film basis was far off-base. Just ehh for me, but a decent sequel.