Movielogr
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)
Directed by David Yates
Twitter Facebook Google+Most recently watched by Kyrandia, CaptainBigTime, AllAboutSteve, sensoria
Overview
Gellert Grindelwald has escaped imprisonment and has begun gathering followers to his cause—elevating wizards above all non-magical beings. The only one capable of putting a stop to him is the wizard he once called his closest friend, Albus Dumbledore. However, Dumbledore will need to seek help from the wizard who had thwarted Grindelwald once before, his former student Newt Scamander, who agrees to help, unaware of the dangers that lie ahead. Lines are drawn as love and loyalty are tested, even among the truest friends and family, in an increasingly divided wizarding world.
Rated PG-13 | Length 134 minutes
Actors
Eddie Redmayne | Katherine Waterston | Dan Fogler | Alison Sudol | Johnny Depp | Jude Law | Ezra Miller | Zoë Kravitz | Callum Turner | Claudia Kim | Carmen Ejogo | Jessica Williams | William Nadylam | Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson | Ólafur Darri Ólafsson | Kevin Guthrie | Brontis Jodorowsky | Derek Riddell | David Sakurai | Fiona Glascott | Wolf Roth | Victoria Yeates | Poppy Corby-Tuech | Cornell John | Claudius Peters | Bart Soroczynski | Danielle Hugues | Alfie Simmons | Isaac Cortinovis Johnson | Olivia Popica | Alfie Mailley | Simon Wan | Andrew Turner | Linda Santiago | Alfrun Rose | Maja Bloom | Olwen Fouéré | Simon Meacock | David Wilmot | Ed Gaughan | Jamie Campbell Bower | Toby Regbo | Hugh Quarshie | Isaura Barbé-Brown | Keith Chanter | Jemima Woolnough | Hollie Burgess | Thea Lamb | Joshua Shea | Isaac Domingos | Ruby Woolfenden | Christopher Birks | Sabine Crossen | Morrison Thomas | Johanna Thea | Liv Hansen | Israel Ruiz | Jag Patel | Deepak Anand | Andrew Blackall | Phil Hodges | Michael Haydon | Tim Ingall | Stephen McDade | Jeremy Oliver | Dave Simon | Jason Redshaw | Callum Forman | Ryan Hannaford | Donna Preston | Nasir Jama | Aykut Hilmi | Natalie Lauren | Deano Bugatti | Adrian Wheeler | Annarie Boor | Sean Coleman | Ana Cilas | Grant Crookes | Sarah-Jane De Crespigny | Mike Wood
Viewing History (seen 1 time)
| Date Viewed | Device | Format | Source | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11/19/2018 | Movie Screen | Digital | Theater | 7.5 stars |
| (Average) 7.5 stars |
Viewing Notes
In news that even surprises me… I really enjoyed this movie. After reading all the critic takes panning the film I was sure to be rather indifferent on this installment and actually wasn’t enthused to go see it. Having the opening sequence feature Depp / Grindelwald didn’t help matters but when we get the reunion of original characters (Newt, Jacob, Queenie and Tina) I was onboard and fully into the story.
The story is overly complex involving a variety of characters that had my brain working overtime to recall all the names from the HP franchise. That and the “prequelitis” are the biggest weaknesses here, i.e. we already know the future of Dumbledore.
Strengths are the relationships w/the OG crew, which I adore and the, ahem, fantastic beasts, which I presume are the most rare / endangered creatures on the planet given there’s probably only a handful of each one in existence. Cool to see the kappa if only briefly and I love the Chinese Lion!
As far as the core story I don’t care much for the origin of Credence and the search for him. Same for Leta Lestrange but it’s fine. As much as I dislike Depp these days, he’s fine as well but I can’t stop wondering how it would be with Colin Farrell in that role (he’d be great playing misunderstood bad guy). Kinda wish they hadn’t given Grindelwald a sympathetic cause bc fuck that guy.
Last note: not sure why there was such a stink about an Asian woman portraying Nagini (framed as oh this is bad look for subservient history of Asian women, IIRC, I’ll have to look it up). I believe any woman in that role would have been unfairly criticized. What do you do? I guess don’t include the character… resulting in one less opportunity? Dumb.
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