![]() You’ll wonder why those characters do half the things they do. You’ll wonder why the film seems so uncertain as to whom its central characters are. Because of these problems-as well as a multitude of other, even more mundane scripting issues- Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald elicits the wrong type of wonder. Like a sack of shiny baubles, there may be plenty of sparkle, but the story being pieced together from the jumble is told with all the narrative flair-and nearly equal amounts of exposition-of a Wikipedia entry. Instead, characters, creatures and many a plot device are dumped out on the floor at the feet of the viewer. ![]() If only it was all in service of a good story, or even a decent one. There are wizards aplenty, apparating right and left (and up and down) there are coruscating energies contained and unleashed and there are, of course, lots of fantastic beasts. David Yates’ Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald may represent the apex of this process, which eschews the mundane for the magical. With each successive film set in the Harry Potter universe, the presentation of the Wizarding World becomes more honed and more visually wondrous, as if the very moment of “wow!” can be distilled and purified into a concoction that will keep a viewer’s mouth permanently agape. Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Callum Turner, Zoë Kravitz, Jude Law, Ezra Miller, Claudia Kim, Alison Sudol, Johnny Depp Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Big American “stars” would have hijacked the characters and their eccentricities, but with Kenneth Branagh as preening, narcissist Gilderoy Lockhart and Richard Harris as paternal grand wizard Dumbledore, immersion was a certainty.ĩ. The film also confirmed its greatest strength: A cast of British thespians who could turn goofy spell incantations into Shakespearean drama. The movie shines only when it hints at the sweeping canvas Rowling had already woven: Harry’s view into the past at arch-villain Tom Riddle and a beardless Hagrid shows a staggering degree of forethought and consideration that would unfurl throughout the next six iterations. ![]() The narrative flits from centaurs and baby dragons to ethnic cleansing at a breathless pace, never meditating on the sheer horror of what it’s proposed-a horror that will come three films later. Revolving around a secret chasm underneath the magician training ground of Hogwarts that threatens to release a reptilian monster that would, in no uncertain terms, commit genocide against students born of non-magic lineage, Steve Klove’s screenplay is never able to amend that austerity with the buoyant escapism that occupies much of the runtime. Stars: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Kenneth Branagh, Robbie Coltrane, Richard Harris, Jason Isaacs, Alan Rickman, Maggie SmithĬhamber of Secrets isn’t a terrible film by any stretch of the imagination, but it did demonstrate severe growing pains. In honor of this, we dove into Rowling’s cinematic oeuvre, putting on our own critical Sorting Hat to see which films hold up and where the most recent contributions fit into this franchise’s ever-changing legacy. Ten years ago, the final film in the main HP storyline ( Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows-Part 2) hit theaters, giving fans what they thought was some closure to Rowling’s tale of witchcraft and wizardry…until, of course, she decided to write a new series of movies based around that lil’ magical guy we all know(?) and love(?), Newt Scamander. Regardless, that heady mix of real-world volatility and adolescent power fantasy resulted in over $9 billion dollars in worldwide receipts. ![]() evil, The Boy Who Lived assumed a renewed degree of relevance in the wake of a political regime proud of its unsubtle ties to racism and white supremacy…and a creator that couldn’t stop tweeting her bad opinions. It’s a series that grew up with its readers, and the same can certainly be said for its film translations, that’s releases span two decades. Rowling’s Harry Potter epic is a thematic Trojan Horse: What starts as an innocent tale of magic and empowerment sheds its exterior to comment on the abrasive social plagues of racism and totalitarian politics.
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