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Fantastic Beast: The Crimes of Grindelwald Review

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”10314″ img_size=”590×350″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Kathrine Waterson, Alison Sudol, Don Fogler, Jude Law, Ezra Miller, Johnny Depp, Zoe Kravitz

Director: David Yates

Writer: J.k. Rowling

Editor: Mark Day

Cinematographer: Philippe Rousselot

Composer: James Newton Howard

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Fantastic Beast: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a fantastic film for all Potterheads, but that is where the problem lies. Fantastic Beast: The Crimes of Grindelwald is about Grindelwald gathering an army of wizards, so they can rule over muggles. Dumbledore recruits Newt to stop Grindelwald because Dumbledore can’t move against him.

David Yates does a fantastic job directing Eddie Redmayne, Kathrine Waterson, Jude Law, Ezra Miller, Johnny Depp, and Zoe Kravitz, who are the most important characters in the film. I just feel that David Yates focuses way too much on these actors/actresses that the other actors/actress makes the film a little weak. Granted David Yates had so many characters to focus on with so little time I can’t fault him too much for that.

Philippe Rousselot great choice as the cinematographer if you are not educated in his work, he has done The Nice Guys, Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them, Sherlock Holmes, Constantine and so much more. His camera movements, Angles and shots were all used effectively to show the story David Yates and J.K Rowling wanted. I was so into the film because of the cinematography and my goodness the visuals effects. I felt transported into the wizarding world. The scene where Newt is blowing the dust like thing in the middle of the road; my mind was blown.

The cinematography wasn’t the only thing that helped me feel transported. We also have to think the composer, James Newton Howard, who has composed hundreds of film like The Dark Knight, Nightcrawler, The Hunger Games, King Kong and Batman Begins. I feel like he is deeply underrated. His style for most of his films makes those films so much better in my opinion.

The character interaction was very good. I could feel the chemistry between all the characters that were on-screen together. There was one weakness though and it was the interactions of Queenie and Jacob as a couple. I don’t know what it was, but it felt way too cheesy for my taste other than that everyone did a beautiful Job.

Johnny Depp is the standout for me, all the way through the film I felt his presence even when he wasn’t in the frame you knew this film was either focused on him or Newt. The character Grindelwald was fantastic his motives were believable they kind of reminded me of Ian McKellen character Magneto a little.

The Pacing of the film didn’t feel right to me at times. It felt like it was cutting from one story to another way too quickly, I couldn’t keep up. This is a film that has great story ideas but was not used effectively.

J.K. Rowling is most differently a strong writer that has a lot of great ideas, but in this film and Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them J.K. Rowling didn’t know how to structure the story perfect enough for the great characters. The story structure is the biggest weakness of this film much like Avengers Infinity War the cuts from each character and their specific story was a great idea, but I feel like it wasn’t used effectively like it was in Avengers Infinity War.

Overall this film was a blast with great characters, amazing cinematography, fantastic visuals effects and beautiful score, but the story structure wasn’t there and the pacing of the film was weak.

Score: B-