Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — magic or mediocre?
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald carries on its shoulders the high expectations, confidence, and knowledge of millions of Potter-heads.
With authentic characters like Dumbledore being re-introduced at a different age, the film is playing a risky game anyway, let alone with the plot twists they decide to throw in on top.
Jude Law plays young Dumbledore, a much trendier and more modern version of the one we already know and love. For the hard-core fans who really know their stuff: expect a world of questions, confusion and an angry feeling in the pit of your stomach…
To see Hogwarts once again on a cinema screen is honestly heart-warming. With the original music referenced at this point as well, director David Yates knows exactly what he is doing: triggering our younger selves.
This scene prompts the audience to feel optimistic for the rest of the movie; however, it was — unfortunately — the only true highlight.
Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), returns to the screen — this time accompanied with even more visually stunning and curious magical creatures. He is approached by Dumbledore, who wants them to work together in an attempt to stop the evil actions of Grindelwald.
Similarly, to Voldemort, this evil wizard — played by Johnny Depp — wants pure-blood wizards to rule over non-magical ‘muggles’ and will do anything in his power to do so.
Naturally, this leads to epic battle scenes, brightly-coloured spell-casting and some really magnificent looking cinematography.
Having said that, a lot of fans will be left disappointed by this movie. Within minutes of it having finished the first showing, plot holes had already spread online, revealing some seriously awkward questions for J.K. Rowling.
Which begs the question: should the Fantastic Beasts series be a little more separated from the Harry Potter movie franchise?
There is a slither of hope in me, however, that J.K. Rowling is sitting somewhere with a big smile on her face, as her perfectly orchestrated plan unfolds in her own mind.
This film has, without a doubt, opened a whole collection of theories and possibilities for the next movie — meaning that we could get a whole collection of Fantastic Beasts films to look forward to.
