Film of the Week: Fantastic Beasts – The Crimes of Grindelwald

This film only proves the wizarding world is not going away any time soon. It also has a major continuity error with Minerva Mcgonagall – working at Hogwarts during a time she shouldn’t have been born yet. It also shows Dumbledore working as the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, when in the main books he’s known as the Transfiguration teacher, however this film does make a nod toward how he transitioned from one post to another before ascending to what we all know him as the Headmaster of Hogwarts.

I’m glad we saw Grindelwald at the height of his powers, showing how effortlessly it is to defend himself from any attack. Whilst Voldemort is known as the greatest dark wizard of all time, incredibly powerful from child to the final battle with Harry, Grindelwald certainly rivals his power. We see, more visually, Grindelwald’s power, especially the blue Fiend Fire, which if not defeated would have spread and destroyed Paris.

Whilst briefly covering the matter because we already know of the information, we see Dumbledore’s past relationship with Grindelwald, and how they once made a promise – a blood pact – never to fight each other, which many believe is the reason for Ariana’s demise when Grindelwald, Dumbledore, and Aberforth fought in their house.

But, the most shocking exploration of a character comes at the very end, a spoiler too grand to reveal but is probably going to be the centre point in the third film. Never mentioned before this film, a lot of explaining needs to be done to make sure us fans are satisfied with the sudden addition to what was previously believed a closed story – no more information could be revealed.

At 2hrs and 15 minutes, Crimes of Grindelwald doesn’t have as much action as the first film, instead opting for more exposition, which is a risky manoeuvre as it’s commonly seen as boring if not done correctly. Crimes of Grindelwald uses its exposition to not only explain some answers to questions left open from the first, but set up more opportunities for the third, leading to the ultimate battle between Grindelwald and Dumbledore, a battle that is mentioned on Dumbledore’s chocolate frog card, which is of itself an achievement he’s quite proud of. The exposition in this film keeps you gripped, because there really is a lot in each scene where exposition is featured.

I wouldn’t say it’s among my favourite Wizarding World movies. Whilst exposition is this film’s strong point, unfortunately it is also it’s weakness. I was gripped to what was being said, and I enjoyed the revelations and set-ups, but that’s all this film was about; wrapping up what the previous film didn’t and setting up a potential sequel. As a true standalone sequel within a series of films, unfortunately this isn’t, but one that has to be watched to keep up to date, but not necessary the one film that’ll appear at the top of people’s favourites list.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)