Member review

There is a massive difference between writing a book and a film, and there is no better example of this than Fantastic Beasts and the Crimes of Grindelwald. The screenplay of this film, and the previous one, were written by J.K Rowling who is obviously the author of Harry Potter. The problems created by the this film are all to do with her and how she's written the film.

What's good? Not much really, I think the actors are doing the best they can with the material they are given. Dan Fogler is the best part of these films and probably the next three. Yes Rowling is making three more of these. Other than that the moments with the Fantastic beasts, as few as there are, are fun and should be the focus of the series.

Now the bad, and there is so much bad, and it's all to do with the writing. Firstly the events of the first film are completely erased which questions what the point of that film was. In the first 10 minutes it is revealed that Credence is not dead, which is one of the biggest emotional beats of the film, and also Jacobs memory hasn't been erased because "only the bad memories were removed and he didn't have any" which isn't true. Do you know how I know that's not true? Because Rowling explains that's not how the spell works! It's an example of how Rowling retcons things that blatantly weren't true previously just to suit the situation.

Secondly the structure of this film is something truly special. This is a real example from the film. The main characters arrive in a tomb where they yell exposition at each other and then trip into the final battle. No build up, just "whoops now we're fighting the main bad guy". This is an issue for the whole of the film, there is no build up or tension involved. There is no second act to the film. No conflict or low moment for the good guys. It just begins and ends. No in between.

Maybe it's a nitpick but I don't understand why Newt is involved. He is a magical zoo keeper so why does it need to be him trying to stop the genocide of all muggles. Although I think that's Grindelwalds plan, his motives or goals are never really explained to well.

I think this series could be good if it went smaller scale, it focused on Newt and maybe his muggle friend Jacob travelling the world and collecting/helping magical animals. That would be fun and it also doesn't need to involve Grindelwald. What I'm saying is Newt and Grindelwald should have nothing to do with each other and Rowling trying to force them together without any explanation of why just hurts the rest of the film.

This film is a complete mess, I think it could be down to Rowling not being experience in screen writing or maybe it only exists for sequel bait. For whatever reasons this film crashes and burns so miserably all you can do is laugh and then walk out unbelievably confused.