Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) Review

We are back in the fantastic world of Newt Scamander and how he must continue the work set out for him by Albus Dumbledore and this time trying to stop Grindelwald.

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The wizarding world is about to have some very big problems when Grindelwald manages to escape from being a prisoner as he is being moved. This puts into motion him finding Credence and eventually revealing who he really is, but he needs him to help his plan to well rule both worlds. Getting rid of the Nomad’s and having full reign. To begin with we aren’t fully aware of why Albus Dumbledore will not fight against him and it takes quite a while to find out why. That is something that is a rather big issue with the plot in this film, it is very slow in build up and the questions we have taken a long time to be answered.

At one point I was starting to wonder if I should have watched the first film again in the build up to seeing this, but so much didn’t really mean much that I doubt it would have been worth it?

The thing that is great are the small links and little things that then go into the Harry Potter world we all know and love. Although some of the timelines are now starting to get very blurred and confused, not something we expect from J. K. Rowling so hopefully she will clear some of this up sometime soon! The film was only released on yesterday so it will be interesting to see if we are then told anymore information.

Something that has been confirmed even more though is that Jacob is still the best character! We are introduced to many more new characters and those we may just have heard of before. Or at the very least part of the name. I did spend quite a lot of time trying to work out different family links, but I don’t think my Potter knowledge is really to the highest level.

Action wise I felt this was a little bit skimpy in terms of the final scene was the most action which took a long time to get to. It could have had more. But I do need to mention the Hogwarts moment with that music we all know and love, so much so a child in the screening I was in put both fists in the air to celebrate! That certainly was a great link and probably needed, although some of the rules we already knew seem to have been broken?

Newt takes a backseat at times, although he does still manage to get some of his scenes with new creatures. Also one we pretty much-loved in the first film as well, plays a very key role in this one. I felt we didn’t get too much of Dumbledore, but everything is set up for bigger roles in the next films in this franchise.

While parts of the film did look visually stunning and impressive with the magic used, special effects and amazing moments. It was just a shame the plot was slow and did not have a massive amount in terms of layers.