There are very few mega-series that get it right. Star Wars, Avengers, all of them have movies within the franchise that absolutely fall below expectations. The Crimes of Grindelwald can join their ranks, being a disappointment both in substance and spectacle. The first Fantastic Beasts movie probably set the bar too high because I sat through the second actually checking the time on multiple occasions, waiting for the tired and disjointed plot to come to an end.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald follows the main character Newt a number of months after the events of the first movie. Grindelwald has escaped from capture and Credence, the elusive Obscurial is at risk of causing more danger to the human universe.   The movie is set up as a proper middle movie in a trilogy, building up tension, anticipation, and romance. 

But the movie fails in so many ways. It fails to do what good middle movies do – it doesn’t build up its characters, it distracts itself with too many new characters and too little focus and finally, it speeds up towards the finale without actually being worth anything of itself. I felt like I had eaten cotton candy coming out of this movie – a lot of air but still making me feel slightly sick from all the sugar. 

Newt’s main draw in the movie is not actually the search for Credence. Rather it’s Tina, Newt’s love interest from the first movie, that draws him to search Paris for her, eventually putting him on a collision course with the forces of Grindelwald and Credence. While Newt is busy searching for reconciliation, Credence is searching for an identity, looking for the mother that gave him up for adoption and something to give him purpose. Simultaneously we observe Grindelwald’s grand strategy to build his following play out, manipulating others and choosing selfish desires over anything else.

I personally don’t mind parallel storylines if a movie can pull them together beautifully. This movie doesn’t. Story jumps are awkward at best and glaring at worst. Character connections are weak and ineffective, and I walked away with no remorse or admiration for anyone in the movie.

Even technically, the movie surprisingly fell short. I couldn’t hear what half the characters were saying because they were mumbling, and the special effects were ineffective in building the universe we had grown to love in the Harry Potter universe. I really cannot emphasize how disappointed I was in a movie that should have had the resources to pull off something at least acceptable.

The sad thing is that the final movie in the trilogy is likely to be worth watching as it sums up the story and so the second movie becomes a prerequisite regardless of its poor quality. All I encourage is a shot of tequila before to get through it all.

Here’s my rating of the movie below:

Cinematography: 3/5

Screenwriting: 2/5

Musical Score: 3/5

Acting/ Performance: 3/5

Overall: 2.75/5