To be honest, I wasn't a big fan of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I didn't hate it but I definitely didn't love it as much as my friends did. I thought it was one big set up for all of the future movies to come and I hoped that the subsequent movies in the Wizarding World would be better. My hopes were in vain. I had a chance to see a Thursday preview of the latest installment, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, last night and I thought it was a convoluted mess. Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) escapes while being transported from the U.S. to England and wants all the pureblooded wizards from around the world to rise up and take over all of the non-magical people. He is particularly interested in Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller), who, with the help of a shape shifter named Nagini (Claudia Kim), is trying to find out his true identity (which, presumably, Grindewald knows). A young Dumbledore (Jude Law) enlists the help of Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) to track Grindelwald down because he is prevented from fighting him himself. Newt's brother Theseus (Callum Turner), who is an official with the Ministry of Magic, his former childhood girlfriend Leta Lestrange (Zoe Kravitz), and his current girlfriend Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) are also looking for Grindelwald. Then Tina's sister Queenie (Alison Sudal) comes looking for her and she brings Jacob (Dan Fogler) along because she's enchanted him into marrying her. After a bizarre plot twist involving Leta's brother Yusef Kama (William Nadylam), which is all a bit of tedious misdirection, there is an epic confrontation with Grindelwald. The story is incredibly confusing with a bewildering number of characters who bounce incomprehensibly between New York, London, and Paris and yet nothing of substance actually happens. There were many times when I couldn't figure out what was going on. I kept thinking that it would all come together in the end but it doesn’t because this movie, once again, involves a lot of exposition setting up the next movie, particularly a major revelation at the end which comes out of nowhere (people in my screening actually booed at this). I didn’t especially like Depp’s portrayal of Grindelwald because he is so bland and I found Newt to be more annoying than endearing this time around. The best part of this movie is Newt's interactions with his fantastic beasts, particularly a sea horse made of kelp, but other than that I found it to be incredibly disappointing. I think I might be done with the Wizarding World.
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