Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

A feast for the senses

Do you know why I admire you, Newt? You do not seek power. You simply ask, “Is the thing right?”

– Albus Dumbledore

Ok, so. I don’t really do numbers. Like, nope. I just don’t. Nevertheless, I did read an article on forbes because I was interested in how the second Fantastic Beasts movie was doing at the box offices. And I was quite surprised to read that it’s not going all too well for this one! After watching it today, I might have an idea why that is. 
Read the full article here

But, first things first… 

Elements of the feast:

Appetizer

The movie starts with one of its key qualities: amazing images. And it keeps this very high quality from start to finish. No compromises made here. In the first few minutes you’re just sitting there, mouth dripping from the incredible cinematography and visual effects. It is indeed like an appetizer for what’s to come. It gets you excited for this journey you’re gonna take on with Newt and all the rest on your side. What all the technical departments (cinematography, special and visual effects, cgi, lighting etc.) share in this production is – and I’d be disappointed if it was otherwise with budgets like these – incredibly high technical standard. It really knocked my socks off to watch this spectacle of imagery.

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Main Course

What this feast offers as the main course is quite solid. There’s not only the amazing imagery that fascinates the audience. One thing I’ve always admired about all of the Harry Potter universe, including the Fantastic Beasts movies, is the wonderfully detailed worldbuilding. Everything about this world is synchronised perfectly and you can really feel the love for details, the love for every corner bearing something magical, something extraordinary, that adds to your truly magical experience. This is due to the outstanding production design and props. Whoever is responsible for this – you guys rock!!
Then of course there’s the magical score, slightly different from the iconic Harry Potter themes, yet still as well composed. The music also adds to your experience of a grand feast from the Harry Potter universe; could just as well be served to you right inside the Great Hall!

Another thing that I, as a diehard HP fan, absolutely enjoyed were the many backstories of characters you know from the HP movies and books. I was blown away by getting to know about Nagini’s past – I mean, come on, who’d have thought of that?? Also, having read the books, in this case especially the very last one, it’s awesome to see the history of Dumbledore and Grindelwald come to life on screen (though not as detailed as I’d have wished for, I admit). 
Then there’s Leta Lestrange and you get to know a little bit more about this famous dark wizards family. And last but not least, we’re back in Hogwarts, if only for a few precious moments. 
So, the main course of our feast here comes along with quite a lot of interesting backstories, quite a lot of action, amazing worldbuilding and good music to satisfy your sense of hearing. So far, so good. But we’re still not full. And here’s where it gets complicated…

Dessert

Consider the dessert the aftertaste of our feast. You’ll have to say, it tastes a bit sallow. Remember a few lines above when I praised the backstories? It’s like when you have chocolate cake with liquid chocolate inside for dessert. And then there’s chocolate decorated on top of it. And then there’s chocolate sauce on the side of the plate to make it look appealing. And then they serve you hot chocolate as a drink to go with it. It’s just too much. Chocolate is good. Everybody likes chocolate, right? But too much makes you nauseous. Regard this chocolate talk as a metaphor for the backstories. 
Let’s have a closer look. So, we have the very simple main plot: Grindelwald’s the bad guy. The bad guy escapes prison and gathers followers. The bad guy wants to catch the other bad guy, Credence, who’s actually not so bad after all but rather very very sad and lost. 
Ok. Then there’s Newt, who refuses to see the world as good and evil. He’s obviously the good guy, along with Tina Goldstein, whom he’s in love with, which – Hollywood you’re a genius – brings in the indispensable love story. They want to catch the bad guy and stop him from hurting the not so bad after all guy, Credence.
Oh, right, and then there’s also Queenie Goldstein, Tina’s eccentric sister and Jacob Kowalski, who was obliviated at the end of the last movie but… well, the audience loved him so the film makers included one simple line – “Oh, yes I was obliviated, but it didn’t work” – aaand here he is again, knowing everything. I mean, I love Jacob’s character, as he’s really the comic relief of the movie and he always makes me laugh (great acting here btw). But come on… come oooon. This is what I call “mainstream film making”. You just turn the facts whatever way fits your customer’s demands. Give them what they want and they’ll pay good money. Why not write it another way from the start then? It’d make so much more sense. Oh well… let’s move on. Ah nope. Still can’t. Cause hidden here is another love story, a quite tragic one as well. One love story wasn’t enough, so here we go. There’s your second one you have to follow. Now we can move on…
… to yet another love story. Namely, the one of Theseus Scamander, Newt’s brother and his fiancé Leta Lestrange, whom Newt seems to have been in love with for a while too. It’s like loveception, come on. Give us a break! Theseus works as an auror and also wants to catch the very bad and the not so bad after all guy. Now this is easy, thank you very much. But Leta’s story isn’t quite as easy. In fact, it’s very complicated and, I say, unnessecary. Not that I didn’t like her character. But I’d have missed nothing without her story, that gets a bit annoying in the end, when it just won’t stop.
As I already mentioned, I loved to get to know more about Nagini and I stick to that. It’s not complicated and doesn’t take much space. It’s just a little treat for all the HP nerds, certainly not necessary, but it doesn’t bother anyone and it’s ok (in fact it’s awesome) to get those little treats when you’re so in love with the whole HP universe.
We’re still not done, yet. There’s also Dumbledore, who wants to catch the very bad guy, but can’t as he swore some kind of blood pact with him a while ago when they were best buddies. And he also wants to catch the not so bad after all guy, but like Newt he doesn’t want to harm him and so he sends Newt to do the dirty work for him. 
Still following? Great!
Oh wait, there’s still more! Suddenly, out of the blue, there’s Nicolas Flamel, the alchemist that we know from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. But uhm… what the hell is he doing in this movie? Literally nothing. He gets one funny scene with Jacob, talks with some unknown lady in a book who tells him he has to go fight Grindelwald and save everybody at the cemetery and then… he appears in the end for a second, sticks his wand into the earth, which doesn’t help anyone and that’s that. 
If you need a dictionary for all the characters, check out the closer look on Pottermore

So, what’s the problem with this overloaded dessert? Does it spoil the feast? 
Well, I’d say the latter one is a matter of personal taste. For me it doesn’t spoil the delicacies that the movie brought with it. But you leave with a sallow taste and you’re still a little bit hungry, although you consumed far too much.
I’d say the problem with Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is that at a certain point, when all the various plot lines are introduced, it seems to lose its thread. Or rather, it doesn’t really get to the point of establishing one. It gets, and this is truly sad, a bit mainstream. Instead of concentrating on the actual story and flavoring it with some treats like small backstories like Nagini’s, it is never quite satisfied with all the effects and action and conflicts concerning the love stories and so on… This way it gets one big potpourri of plot lines and cheap showmanship instead of a sturdy, linear story.
I think what may spoil the feast for many people and what may be the reason for this movie being such a chaotic potpourri, is the fact that these movies are no longer adapted from books. Writing a book is much more intense and detailed than writing a movie script and I think you notice this while watching this one. Writing a book sets other focuses than writing a script. What enabled J.K. Rowling to build this amazingly wonderful Harry Potter universe was the fact that she wrote actual books, that she had the possibility to go into detail with every character throughout a seven book journey. And she doesn’t have that here. I don’t blame her for that and I get that she may write the script but she most certainly doesn’t have the final say in all other decisions concerning the realization. 

So, to sum things up: I generally enjoyed watching the movie, I had fun, I was entertained and my Harry Potter nerd genes were satisfied. For me personally, it wasn’t that much of a problem that I was watching this “chaotic potpourri”, as I called it earlier. I do however understand if people don’t like it. As I said, whether it spoils the feast or not is certainly a matter of personal taste. 

Thanks a lot for reading this looong post. I hope you enjoyed it! I’d be really interested in your opinion about the movie, so let me know in the comments! 

All photos used in this post are copyrighted by Warner Brothers Pictures!