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One of the complaints I hear about the Marvel movies is that they seem to be too focused on setting up elements for future films. Those people would absolutely hate this movie. At the very least those Marvel films had a self contained story. Fantastic Beasts, as far as I can tell has no story. I sat there in the theatre as the credits rolled trying to go over in my head what the plot was to the film I just watched, I came back with nothing. Fantastic Plots and Where to Find Them? Not here I'm afraid.
Grindelwald is captured and while being transported to another location to answer for his crimes, he breaks free. Now able to walk the streets, he gathers his minions and tries to recruit others for his cause. His ultimate plan is very Magento like. He believes Wizards should be the dominate people and is willing to kill in order to obtain that belief. Our hero from the last film, Newt, is sent on a mission to find Credence, a boy who is an Obscures. He hopes to free him from his parasitic like powers before it consumes him.
The big issue, and there are many, with this film is that it is a prologue. Why have a prologue for a second film? Shouldn't the first movie be doing this? We have a film here with no plot, no story and simply more on the fly world building from the screenwriter, J.K. Rowling. The author of the successful Harry Potter books is writing the screenplays for this series. I think that is a mistake. She is a wonderful world building writer, but she is no screenwriter. The dialogue is stiff, the plotting is nonsensical and she isn't a visual storyteller. Writing a book and writing for the screen are two different mediums and she doesn't have the skill to make that transferable. She should write the story and hand over scriptwriting duties to someone else. Then we can maybe have a film with a sense of direction. I had no idea where this film was going, I felt like I literally watched a movie about a guy recruiting people and nothing else.
The film opens with a prison break of sorts. Grindelwald escapes his prison transport. I had a hard time keeping track of what was happening. Its dark, its stormy, they are flying in a stagecoach and Yates decides to cut at exponential speeds to the point where I had no idea what was up or down. I had no idea how many people were transporting him, how they all died or anything else for that matter. Yates has directed every Harry Potter film since Order of the Phoenix, so this one makes it 6. He's not particularly bad, but he doesn't seem to have a whimsical eye. I think this series needs a fresh eye behind the lens or it suffers from being too stale. I don't recall any visual thrills in this film, anything that looked cool and has a sense of tension. The film wanders around with nothing to do. Sith so much magic as part of the story and visuals, you'd think I'd be gushing about something.
A lot of people were upset with Depp taking over the role from Farrell. I thought he was going to potentially ruin this film too, but he ends up being the best part of the movie. I was intrigued and invested with Depp's performance the entire time. He brought a bit of 'magic' to the screen. His albino look is off-putting enough to be interesting and he uses his wand like a music conductor. It's nothing big, but a small gesture that elevates the performance. How boring is it when people flick their wands at others to cast a spell. Depp plays with his a bit, adding something to the role that others might not have thought of. Newt is another who uses magic a bit more interesting than others. That's the pro and con of Beasts. We get to see magic be used a little bit more in-depth to things, but then Rowling uses it as crutch to get out of situations. So our leads need to find someone, let's use magic. Need to leave, use magic, need to stop this, do that...magic, magic, magic. Magic is the magical word that is used to get the writer out of a tough situation. A little bit lazy.
Story elements are introduced that immediately shrink the world these people are living in. Everything has to be connected for Rowling, she can't just let characters be different characters. I feel like Lucas suffered from this with the prequels. Small fan service helps the audience connect, too much and you lose them. A lot of the film is dedicated to a character and their arc, which literally leads nowhere. This is time and story progression that could have been used elsewhere. Other characters from the first have little to nothing to do here, specifically Katherine Waterston. She does absolutely nothing in this film.
I was intrigued with the direction of this series, leaving the kids behind for a more adult fare. But this movie did more to hurt the series than help. We know that the last film will be a battle between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, so it seems every movie will just be fodder leading up to that and nothing else. Crimes is an empty film, there is simply nothing to it. Which is a shame because it looks beautiful. The costumes, art direction, set design, everything about the look of this film is fantastic. It's just a shame that the story elements don't match it.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
(David Yates)
(David Yates)
One of the complaints I hear about the Marvel movies is that they seem to be too focused on setting up elements for future films. Those people would absolutely hate this movie. At the very least those Marvel films had a self contained story. Fantastic Beasts, as far as I can tell has no story. I sat there in the theatre as the credits rolled trying to go over in my head what the plot was to the film I just watched, I came back with nothing. Fantastic Plots and Where to Find Them? Not here I'm afraid.
Grindelwald is captured and while being transported to another location to answer for his crimes, he breaks free. Now able to walk the streets, he gathers his minions and tries to recruit others for his cause. His ultimate plan is very Magento like. He believes Wizards should be the dominate people and is willing to kill in order to obtain that belief. Our hero from the last film, Newt, is sent on a mission to find Credence, a boy who is an Obscures. He hopes to free him from his parasitic like powers before it consumes him.
The big issue, and there are many, with this film is that it is a prologue. Why have a prologue for a second film? Shouldn't the first movie be doing this? We have a film here with no plot, no story and simply more on the fly world building from the screenwriter, J.K. Rowling. The author of the successful Harry Potter books is writing the screenplays for this series. I think that is a mistake. She is a wonderful world building writer, but she is no screenwriter. The dialogue is stiff, the plotting is nonsensical and she isn't a visual storyteller. Writing a book and writing for the screen are two different mediums and she doesn't have the skill to make that transferable. She should write the story and hand over scriptwriting duties to someone else. Then we can maybe have a film with a sense of direction. I had no idea where this film was going, I felt like I literally watched a movie about a guy recruiting people and nothing else.
The film opens with a prison break of sorts. Grindelwald escapes his prison transport. I had a hard time keeping track of what was happening. Its dark, its stormy, they are flying in a stagecoach and Yates decides to cut at exponential speeds to the point where I had no idea what was up or down. I had no idea how many people were transporting him, how they all died or anything else for that matter. Yates has directed every Harry Potter film since Order of the Phoenix, so this one makes it 6. He's not particularly bad, but he doesn't seem to have a whimsical eye. I think this series needs a fresh eye behind the lens or it suffers from being too stale. I don't recall any visual thrills in this film, anything that looked cool and has a sense of tension. The film wanders around with nothing to do. Sith so much magic as part of the story and visuals, you'd think I'd be gushing about something.
A lot of people were upset with Depp taking over the role from Farrell. I thought he was going to potentially ruin this film too, but he ends up being the best part of the movie. I was intrigued and invested with Depp's performance the entire time. He brought a bit of 'magic' to the screen. His albino look is off-putting enough to be interesting and he uses his wand like a music conductor. It's nothing big, but a small gesture that elevates the performance. How boring is it when people flick their wands at others to cast a spell. Depp plays with his a bit, adding something to the role that others might not have thought of. Newt is another who uses magic a bit more interesting than others. That's the pro and con of Beasts. We get to see magic be used a little bit more in-depth to things, but then Rowling uses it as crutch to get out of situations. So our leads need to find someone, let's use magic. Need to leave, use magic, need to stop this, do that...magic, magic, magic. Magic is the magical word that is used to get the writer out of a tough situation. A little bit lazy.
Story elements are introduced that immediately shrink the world these people are living in. Everything has to be connected for Rowling, she can't just let characters be different characters. I feel like Lucas suffered from this with the prequels. Small fan service helps the audience connect, too much and you lose them. A lot of the film is dedicated to a character and their arc, which literally leads nowhere. This is time and story progression that could have been used elsewhere. Other characters from the first have little to nothing to do here, specifically Katherine Waterston. She does absolutely nothing in this film.
I was intrigued with the direction of this series, leaving the kids behind for a more adult fare. But this movie did more to hurt the series than help. We know that the last film will be a battle between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, so it seems every movie will just be fodder leading up to that and nothing else. Crimes is an empty film, there is simply nothing to it. Which is a shame because it looks beautiful. The costumes, art direction, set design, everything about the look of this film is fantastic. It's just a shame that the story elements don't match it.