Sunday 18 November 2018

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (David Yates, 2018)

The milking of the Potterverse continues with Eddie Redmayne now charged with tracking down Johnny Depp's escaped Grindelwald in Paris. The FX-laden images are undoubtedly spectacular once more, with the 1920s cityscapes particularly stunning. But the beasts of the title are sidelined this time to adverse effect by a cast that has grown quite too large, all given their own agendas, some of which are frankly indecipherable. Depp's villain is obviously meant to channel Hitler, with his creation of an army of wizards to be set against mankind, but in truth he doesn't get much to work with except looking a bit scary and making speeches about his vague plans for the future of the world. Rowling simply cannot do political metaphors, and the film doesn't manage to sustain a sense of drama because of all its digressions. Then the realisation that we won't see any conclusion here because it's just meant to lead to a third part sinks in, and that's somewhat depressing.

5/10

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