Movie Review

On November 16, Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald came out in theaters. It is a sequel to Fantastic Beasts: and Where to Find Them and a prequel to the famous Harry Potter franchise. J.K. Rowling and David Yates both worked on the two films; Rowling writing the screenplays and Yates directing. Rowling plans to have three more movies in this new series. Although the movies came out long after the last Harry Potter movie, they take place about 70 years before in the 1920s.

The second movie starts right where the first movie leaves off when Grindelwald, a powerful and evil wizard, played by Johnny Depp, is captured and stuck in jail.

Rowling creates another “fantastic” piece of art by making such intricate characters and plot line, and she demonstrates this by using every second she has of screen time. Every scene is important in the making of her story. This movie has a great balance between action, comedy, tragedy, and of course romance. Its complicated but neatly woven story keeps viewers on the edge of their seats with so many plot twists that not even a Harry Potter fanatic would see coming.

Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne portrays a Magizoologist, a person who studies magical creatures, named Newt Scamander. He adds so much depth to his anti-social character. He makes small but cute, awkward facial expressions to make Scamander so lovable. He portrays his nervous character so well that someone can’t help but feel sorry for him and sometimes even wince when he says something he didn’t mean to. His incredible acting makes Newt Scamander the perfect hero, powerful but humble.

Many new characters appear including the famous Dumbledore played by Jude Law. Any Harry Potter fan will be thrilled to experience him in his earlier years, youthful but just as wise. Law does an incredible job capturing Dumbledore’s cool manner and witty mind. Although he has a such powerful presence, Rowling does a great job in not letting Law’s poised character overshadow Newt Scamander. In Harry Potter, Dumbledore’s complicated background is revealed and shocks everyone. In this movie, more details about his past have risen and people can’t help wonder if Rowling just added more onto the character for the sake of the movie or it was always there but just never talked about in the original franchise. As brilliant as J.K. Rowling is, some of her plot lines in the movie don’t line up with some things she wrote in Harry Potter which is understandable because it has been so long.

However, the incredible special effects outweigh this small setback. Of course the magic effects and the beasts were going to look good, but no one anticipated the amount of detailing and technique that went into creating the creatures and the beautiful wizardry.

Although it’s a long movie lasting two hours and 13 minutes, it is time that is definitely not wasted. It serves the first movie justice and is absolutely a must watch.