AC22: Random Movie Review - Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

So when I reviewed the first film, I felt that it was unexpectedly festive in a way. But with the sequel, it felt too dark to be festive in any way. So here we are with the second Fantastic Beasts film which many have called one of the weaker films in the Wizarding World fanchise. At least that's what most critics outside of the UK say as its been very well received here. The stakes are high, familiar areas and faces are in this one and of course there will be a few fantastic beasts of sorts to look out for. So let's get to it:

So after seeing the first time the Wizarding World logo being used in any of its films, we discover that its been one year since the New York incident. After having been tried in the States, Gellert Grindelwald (reprised by a man of many characters, Johnny Depp) gets transferred to London to be tried for his crimes in Europe. But the criminal manages to outsmart his captors and together with his minions of sorts, sets up base in Paris in an attempt to find Credence (reprised by the big screen Flash himself, Ezra Miller) who is travelling with a freak circus and befriends a fellow worker called Nagini (played by Claudia Kim) who joins him in finding out his true identity. Meanwhile, Newt (reprised by Eddie Redmayne) works with a young Albus Dumbledore (this time played by Jude Law) to stop Grindelwald from enacting war on both no-majs and the wizarding world as we know it, along with a few friends human and beast alike.

This is a much darker film than the first, but its also pretty good despite the problems it has. There are only a few scenes where the titular beasts take centre stage which is a massive drop from the first film. I get that much of what's happening is setting up future instalments, but it kind of gets tiring after a while trying to keep up with everything going on. Though having said that, the cast are as charming and fantastic as ever (even with the newcomers as well), the visual effects are pretty neat and the fan service is done well too. There's just a lot going on and there was at least one scene that did a number on my brain because of how flashy it was. It probably won't win any awards like earlier instalments, but it shows that there are more stories to tell. I mean its supposed to be a six film saga so there wasn't really any need to set up too much stuff in one film when you can flesh all those things out in later films. So yeah, definitely not the best of the Wizarding World films but I can't say that its the worst. In fact I'm not sure if there is a really bad film in the franchise. Anyway I'm giving this film a 7/10