Provided a film review for Ramble On, a new arts and culture magazine at the College of William & Mary (2019).
Do yourself a favor and obliviate any positive expectations you have before viewing J.K. Rowling’s most recent addition to the Harry Potter series canon, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. While the first film, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, scored a 74 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, the newest film hit a descendo charm and fell flat with an abysmal 37 percent. It is a film filled with exposition, extravagant costumes, nostalgia, and little else.
Not much has happened since we left off with Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and his case of fantastic beasts. His book has been published – something that is given little importance or weight throughout the film – and he is back to living in foggy London, England. Audiences are treated to seeing the full magical realm of his magizoological hideaway where he stores his beasts, ranging from baby Nifflers to a full-grown kelpie. Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol) and a drugged-up Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) show up in London, basically just to make the point known that Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) is in Paris. Newt Scamander is tasked to find the dangerous, but misunderstood obscurus (Ezra Miller), who is gallivanting with his companion, Nagini (Claudia Kim) – because it seems that every single character needs a backstory in J.K. Rowling’s eyes. They both happen to be in – you guessed it – Paris. How convenient. This is all to stop the very Nazi-like Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) from taking over the wizarding world.
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