Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a 2018 British-American fantasy film directed by David Yates and written by J. K. Rowling. A joint American and British production, it is the sequel to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It is the second film in the Fantastic Beasts film series and in turn a spin-off of the Harry Potter film series as well as the tenth overall in the Wizarding World franchise. The film premiered in Paris on 8 November 2018 and was released worldwide on 16 November 2018, in RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX 3D, 4DX, IMAX, and ScreenX Formats, by Warner Bros. Pictures.

An untitled third film is scheduled for release on 15 July 2022, but without Johnny Depp, being replaced in his role by Mads Mikkelsen.

Plot
In 1927, in an effort to thwart Grindelwald's plans of raising pure-blood wizards to rule over all non-magical beings, Albus Dumbledore enlists his former student Newt Scamander, who agrees to help, unaware of the dangers that lie ahead. Lines are drawn as love and loyalty are tested, even among the truest friends and family, in an increasingly divided wizarding world.

Why It's A Crime Against The Saga (Bad Qualities)

 * 1) The plot is confusing and difficult to follow, mainly due to there being too many sub-plots about different characters.
 * 2) Despite all these sub-plots resulting in many different things happening, barely anything interesting happens within any of them; this makes the film rather boring.
 * 3) *Some of these sub-plots revolve around characters suffering from poor writing, not much people will care for, which pours salt onto the wound.
 * 4) The problem with the plot is that it focused too much on Easter-eggs and references to the Harry Potter films rather than the actual plot. This may have something to do with the fact that J.K. Rowling is not really a professional screenwriter, having just made her screenwriting debut with the previous Fantastic Beasts film.
 * 5) The movie has plenty of scenes that suffer from being nonsensical and illogical. Examples include:
 * 6) *In the opening scene, Grindelwald is being transported from a prison in the United States to prison in Europe... using a flying horse carriage. This not only sounds like it would take days but as seen in the films, there are far faster ways for transportation, such as using a Portkey.
 * 7) *It was actually Abernathy who got arrested in the beginning, having disguised himself as Grindelwald; meanwhile, Grindelwald disguises himself as Abernathy when freeing him. It is unclear as to how or why Abernathy was still in his disguise, even after getting arrested; similarly, it is unclear as to what the point of Grindelwald disguising himself as Abernathy was.
 * 8) *Newt has been prohibited from traveling to other countries, but this plot device is quickly forgotten about as Newt travels to other countries without punishment.
 * 9) Poor grasp of the Harry Potter lore; for example, characters use apparition to get to Hogwarts, despite the lore stating that apparition is banned in Hogwarts grounds.
 * 10) The scene in which Grindelwald and Abernathy escape from the MACUSA at the beginning is too fast, to the point where it is unclear as to who is fighting who, who is hitting who, among other things.
 * 11) Rather than letting the plot flow normally, the movie tells us what the plot is through a discussion by a bunch of characters towards the beginning of the film.
 * 12) As mentioned above, many of the characters are poorly written and forgettable.
 * 13) Slow pacing causes the film to be unnecessarily long, which contributes to boredom.
 * 14) Grindelwald is one of the worst, if not the worst villain in the franchise. He has a bland personality, his goals are forgettable, and he looks more moronic than he does intimidating. Even though Johnny Depp was good at portraying him, it wasn't enough to make Grindelwald a great villain.
 * 15) Leta Lestrange is wasted as a character; despite Rowling stating that she was the one responsible for Newt's expulsion from Hogwarts and for their romantic relationship, Leta's relationship with Newt is barely explored here, given her engagement with Newt's brother and the fact that she dies at the end of this film.
 * 16) Although the title implies that many of the heinous crimes Grindelwald committed would be shown, he doesn't appear much and barely commits any crimes whenever he does appear.
 * 17) *Speaking of the title, the film doesn't focus on creatures from the franchise at all unlike the first Fantastic Beasts film, which is false advertising, even though the title could be referring to Grindelwald and his followers as the "beasts".
 * 18) Despite Albus Dumbledore being shown as one of the main supportive protagonists, he barely even gets enough screentime to be a supporting character, making him pointless.

Good Qualities

 * 1) As with any Harry Potter film, the visual effects and action sequences are great.
 * 2) Fantastic musical score composed by James Newton Howard.
 * 3) Multiple good performances, especially Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander and Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore.
 * 4) The dark tone is handled surprisingly well.
 * 5) Newt Scamander is still a likable protagonist.
 * 6) Nicolas Flamel's appearance is a nice reference to his involvement in the plot of mh:greatestmovies:Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, given that he was constantly mentioned throughout the book and the film but lacked a physical presence.
 * 7) Just like how the first film explored the American wizarding community in the form of the MACUSA, the film does the same by showing us the French Ministry of Magic.
 * 8) The plot twist of Credence Barebone's real name is allegedly Aurelius Dumbledore, the long-lost brother of Albus and Aberforth, is surprising, even if it's still not clear when and where he was born.
 * 9) Like the first film, David Yates still gives a good direction.
 * 10) The scene where Grindelwald and Dumbledore seal the blood pact is quite emotional.
 * 11) It was Johnny Depp's final time playing Grindelwald and did it well, given that the role will be recast with Mads Mikkelsen in the next sequels after Warner Bros. forced Depp to resign due to the controversies surrounding him and his ex-wife Amber Heard.

Reception
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was met with mixed reception who praised its entertainment value and James Newton Howard's musical score as well as the direction and performances (particularly from Law and Depp), but also criticized the "needlessly complicated, low-stakes plot," while feeling that it was "overburdened" with details setting up future sequels, and is widely considered to be the worst film in the Harry Potter franchise. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a critic approval rating of 36%, making it the only Harry Potter film to have a "rotten" score with the website's critical consensus reads, "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald has glimmers of the magic familiar to Harry Potter fans, but the story's spell isn't as strong as earlier installments.", while the audience approval rating was a 56%. It is also the lowest-rated Harry Potter film on Metacritic, with a critic score of 52/100 as well as a user score of 5.7/10. IMBD also has it as the lowest-rated film in the franchise so far, with a score of 6.6/10.

Box office
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald grossed around $653.8 million, making it the lowest-grossing Harry Potter film so far, but was a box office success.

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