Second in this five part series is overflowing with all but the magic we were hoping for. There are stunning massive locations, a huge talented cast of the usual characters, but there are more special effects than anything else and the beasts are neither unique nor very scary.
We expected more dazzle from Director David Yates (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them) on a $200 million dollar budget. You can’t tell the players without a scorecard, which is what you need to catch up on who is with who or related to who, and why. It’s a little confusing, especially if you’re not a Potter fan or have a bad memory.
J.K. Rowling created the story and the characters and she wrote this screenplay solo. But the execution of this long and sometimes tedious dark film drags on with shots of characters faces without much expression. The story is basically a tug of war between good and evil with overtones of race. Nothing new about that. But what is supposed to make it different is that these characters have special powers.
This installment picks up where Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them leaves off. Johnny Depp is weird to start with, and as you’d expect, is even more weird as Grindelwald. He looks more sickly than evil. Magizoologist, Newt, who never met a monster he didn’t like, is played again byEddie Redmayne with marbles in his mouth. Newt helped put the Dark Wizard away. While locked up in prison, he became so unruly, they cut his tongue out so he couldn’t talk. But he magically, conveniently repairs his ability to speak. His mismatched eyes and punky light hair just add to his ghastly appearance.
Grindelwald is so clever and evil, he escapes while being transported to Paris under guard. He starts gathering followers who are pure-bred persons with magic who can rule over the muggles; all those without powers. The young Master Wizard, Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) appoints Newt to stop the Dark Wizard again. One by one, we get introduced to so many more characters. Even if you are a Potter follower, you might get a little confused by the number of people on this friends and family tree.
There’s Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), funny Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol), Leta Lestrange (Zoë Kravitz), Newt’s brother Theseus Scamander (Callum Turner), Snake woman, Nagini (Claudia Kim), Yusuf (William Nadylam), Abernathy (Kevin Guthrie) to name the ones seen most prominently.
Then there’s Credence played by the stone-faced, high cheek-boned Ezra Miller. He’s a wizard who does not want anything to do with his own magical abilities, because they are dark, like that of Grindelwald. They come out as something called Obscurus which is very destructive. He’s also going through a major identity crisis. He doesn’t know who is Mother is or how he got where he is. He knows there’s something very wrong with his origin and is one depressed guy trying to sort it all out.
The locations are spectacular including use of the Lacock Abey built in 1229 in Wiltshire, England used in other Harry Potter films. You get to see Hogwarts once again. And the costumes by Colleen Atwood were reportedly inspired by Orson Welles black and white film, The Third Man. But here they’r in beautiful color, including the magnificent magenta satin dress worn by Zoë Kravitz as Leta. It’s very contemporary as is the blue punky number Claudia Kim wears when she’s not a snake.
When Grindelwald gathers his prospective flock in the presidium, it had the feel of something like The Hunger Games. Some of the characters start defecting from the good side to the bad. And all the while, his brother, Theseus, who works for the Ministry of Magic, is trying to get Newt to finally take a stand and help fight Gindelwald so those with and without magical powers can co-exist having “freedom, truth and love.”
The constant barrage of special effects is overdone to the point of tedium. Our heroes trying to navigate moving pillars or stacks, and dodging all the flying objects gets tiresome to watch. There are too many tangents to the plot. It’s a mess. With all of the whiz bang gimmickry, it just sort of lays there like one of Newt’s tired creatures. Followers will love it, but we think it’s all very confusing. Some of Newt’s beasts can fly, but this movie never soars.
Warner Bros. 134 minutes PG 13
