Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald vs. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Eagleskywalker87

on 11/20/2018

I watched every Harry Potter film including Fantastic Beasts in cinemas a couple weekends ago. Yes, it was one of the best weekends of my life as I'm a huge fan of the main HP series and it was great seeing how it all evolved over the course of a couple days. Both in terms of the actors' age and the style. Then comes Fantastic Beasts. I thought the characters were very likeable (not deep like HPs characters but fun) and the best part was the fact it expanded the Harry Potter universe without relying on any names or references. But as its own film, it's soulless and poorly paced... at least I thought that until Crimes Of Grindelward which makes the first look like one of the HP movies in terms of depth and excitment. Simiar to the first, the cast and production is so good that I can’t really hate the film but the writing is really awful. First problem is the pacing. It’s far too slow, 80% is tedious expositional dialogue and there’s a lot of sequences that’s “I’m mad at you because I think you’re engaged” or “I’m mad at you because you think I’m crazy” that isn’t what I personally want from a wizarding movie. It’s also convoluted; there’s about 12 characters that serve as a main character (No exaggeration, don’t believe me see the poster) and apart from 3 they’re either pointless or only serve as a plot device. One character gets an entire backstory in flashbacks (which is the worst section of the film) but only really exists so three characters can have their own revelations. There’s so many plot threads and characters that it doesn’t know what to balance and it's kinda hard to follow. Also, the ending is embarassing. Gee, how can I sit through 3 more of these films?

BoggsiesMovies

on 3/17/2019

Both films feel like Harry Potter throw aways, but the second film is so blan it's pretty much white toast.