RATING: D+
It is official. J.K. Rowling has gone the way of George Lucas.
Now, to the very casual viewer, one might be tempted to blame David Yates for this mess. After all, he's directed every "Wizarding World" movie since Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, including this movie's predecessor. And they wouldn't be totally wrong--it's just that Yates is to blame for this movie's failings for another reason entirely, which we will get to later. But the point is that these films wouldn't exist without Rowling. She wrote these stories / scripts herself. The only difference here is that she's not writing book versions prior. You want to look for the reason as to why we have this mess? Look no further than her.
Now although the first Fantastic Beasts movie did feel like an unnecessary prequel and return, it wasn't really that bad. In fact, it was even enjoyable at times and it was also more well-focused and easy to follow. And despite the fact that we were going to have to sit through five movies of this, at least we get Jude Law as young Dumbledore and Johnny Depp as Grindelwald, right? Surely this movie will be at least enjoyable for that reason? ...Ugh.
So, in this movie Grindelwald is starting to build up his forces. Part of the key to all this may be one Credence Barebone. Remember him? That one disturbed kid who turned into the crazy magical force called the Obscurial? Also, he was totally dead at the end of that movie, remember? But now he's back and they offer no explanation whatsoever. Albus Dumbledore commissions Newt Scamander to go look for Credence and to help stop Grindelwald. "I cannot move against Grindelwald," Albus says. That may sound bizarre... but the explanation for this is actually one of the few twists in this movie that *does* make sense. A reluctant Newt agrees; obviously he's going to need the help of his friends from the last movie, namely Tina and Jacob. Yeah, Queenie's back too... but her role in this film is more complicated than you'd expect.
This film is kind of an insane mess. There's a ton of subplot threads and twists jacked into this thing, and yet... after Grindelwald's prison escape in the opening, not a whole lot interesting actually happens until towards the end. It's pretty clear that this was supposed to be three movies originally instead of five, because this feels like the way overextended first half of one movie.
But the big problem is how many of the various plot threads and twists really don't even make much sense in the context of the Harry Potter canon. A particularly ludicrous twist at the end concerning the identity of Credence is the worst offender. For some reason, Rowling is feeling the need to make add-ons to her own canon; I don't know how she's justifying some of these twists in her mind, but this is basically everything that's wrong with prequels taken to near-maximum insanity.
Not even Johnny Depp or Jude Law can save this. They're excellent castings for Grindelwald and Dumbledore, respectively; most of the more interesting parts of the movie are when they're on screen. And yet they're not utilized fully; partially because we're stalling for time until the two have their famous duel referenced in the books, but that probably won't happen until the fifth movie, and good grief why'd there have to be five of these things instead of just three?!
What's kind of sad is that the film actually could've been more coherent; apparently, there's an extended cut that actually explains some critical things (for example, how Credence survived the end of the first movie). The problem is, that would extend the length of the movie from 134 minutes to nearly 150. And this movie is already long enough. (That's where you can extend some of the partial blame for this mess to David Yates, by the way--for cutting these important scenes in the first place.) And even if this film was more "coherent," this still wouldn't excuse the outright stupidity of some of the plot threads/twists in this thing.
It's bizarre how this prequel series went so quickly from being unnecessary but mildly enjoyable, to actually angering fans like myself and making us wonder how it's possible that J.K. Rowling has lost her marbles this much. I mean, obviously we've seen this kind of thing happen before. George Lucas and Peter Jackson kind of ruined themselves too with their prequel movies. Hopefully these movies will get better again, because right now I'd watch the Star Wars prequels again rather than watch this particular installment again. But I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.
So, in this movie Grindelwald is starting to build up his forces. Part of the key to all this may be one Credence Barebone. Remember him? That one disturbed kid who turned into the crazy magical force called the Obscurial? Also, he was totally dead at the end of that movie, remember? But now he's back and they offer no explanation whatsoever. Albus Dumbledore commissions Newt Scamander to go look for Credence and to help stop Grindelwald. "I cannot move against Grindelwald," Albus says. That may sound bizarre... but the explanation for this is actually one of the few twists in this movie that *does* make sense. A reluctant Newt agrees; obviously he's going to need the help of his friends from the last movie, namely Tina and Jacob. Yeah, Queenie's back too... but her role in this film is more complicated than you'd expect.
This film is kind of an insane mess. There's a ton of subplot threads and twists jacked into this thing, and yet... after Grindelwald's prison escape in the opening, not a whole lot interesting actually happens until towards the end. It's pretty clear that this was supposed to be three movies originally instead of five, because this feels like the way overextended first half of one movie.
But the big problem is how many of the various plot threads and twists really don't even make much sense in the context of the Harry Potter canon. A particularly ludicrous twist at the end concerning the identity of Credence is the worst offender. For some reason, Rowling is feeling the need to make add-ons to her own canon; I don't know how she's justifying some of these twists in her mind, but this is basically everything that's wrong with prequels taken to near-maximum insanity.
Not even Johnny Depp or Jude Law can save this. They're excellent castings for Grindelwald and Dumbledore, respectively; most of the more interesting parts of the movie are when they're on screen. And yet they're not utilized fully; partially because we're stalling for time until the two have their famous duel referenced in the books, but that probably won't happen until the fifth movie, and good grief why'd there have to be five of these things instead of just three?!
What's kind of sad is that the film actually could've been more coherent; apparently, there's an extended cut that actually explains some critical things (for example, how Credence survived the end of the first movie). The problem is, that would extend the length of the movie from 134 minutes to nearly 150. And this movie is already long enough. (That's where you can extend some of the partial blame for this mess to David Yates, by the way--for cutting these important scenes in the first place.) And even if this film was more "coherent," this still wouldn't excuse the outright stupidity of some of the plot threads/twists in this thing.
It's bizarre how this prequel series went so quickly from being unnecessary but mildly enjoyable, to actually angering fans like myself and making us wonder how it's possible that J.K. Rowling has lost her marbles this much. I mean, obviously we've seen this kind of thing happen before. George Lucas and Peter Jackson kind of ruined themselves too with their prequel movies. Hopefully these movies will get better again, because right now I'd watch the Star Wars prequels again rather than watch this particular installment again. But I'm not holding my breath for that to happen.
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