Albus Dumbledore assembles a team to stop Gellert Grindelwald
from amassing global political power and starting a war. FAMILY/FANTASY
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Fantastic Beasts: The
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My, how the mighty have fallen. There was once a time when the Harry Potter franchise (or the Wizarding World franchise, as they are now trying to rebrand it) was the king of fantasy franchises. Every film was a year-long event that always delivered and was a consistent box office smash. Now, the third attempt to make this prequel series interesting is barely going to recoup its budget, and plans for the fourth and fifth films are likely being scrapped. Who can we thank for this mess? There's the ongoing pandemic, J.K. Rowling's refusal to stop tweeting transphobic hate speech, Johnny Depp's firing and replacement, and Ezra Miller's repeated assaults on fans while drunk. Take your pick. In this perfect storm, it's a miracle the film was ever finished in the first place.
After the terrible second part, expectations were low for this one, and yet I was still disappointed. Eddie Redmayne's character of Newt Scamander continues to be irrelevant in his own franchise, which continues to distance itself from fantastic beasts and more into the rise and fall of Gellert Grindelwald. Speaking of Grindelwald, I was highly anticipating Mads Mikkelsen's approach to the character. Gotta say, I think he phoned it in. Both Depp and Mikkelsen failed to rise this character to the level of menace, fear, and vulnerability we've seen in villains from Rowling's head in the past. Also, why do sci-fi/fantasy prequel franchises always overload their films with boring politics? Now we've got an international league of wizards and Grindelwald is running for election. Really? That's the best you could do? I'll give credit where it's due. It was nice to finally directly address Dumbledore and Grindelwald's relationship, even if Warner Bros cut it out of the Chinese version. Baby steps, I guess. Some of the action was cool, but you can tell nobody cares anymore. This franchise has fizzled out fast and it's time to hang it up before it gets embarrassing. |
Man, this has been a rocky franchise spin-off both movie quality wise and behind the scenes. In the case of the former, the general consensus seems to be the first film was okay at best and the sequel was pretty terrible. As for the latter, there’s the whole fiasco with the firing of Johnny Depp and his now very public libel case, the issues Ezra Miller has been causing out in public, and the very anti-trans view J.K. Rowling has been incredibly outspoken about. All of this has gotten to the point where Warner Bros. publicly admitted the day before the release of this newest installment that its box office performance will dictate if the greenlight is given to the planned fourth and fifth installments. A script for a fourth film hasn’t even been written yet. So, not the best way to set expectations for this newest installment in a mostly middling series.
Let it be known my overall thoughts on this series so far lines up with the general consensus I mentioned earlier. As for this installment, it’s better than the prior film at the very least. Mads Mikkelsen proves to be a great addition to the cast as he replaces Johnny Depp in the role of Grindelwald. While Depp was good in the role, Mikkelsen blows him out of the water with making this villain both terrifying and vulnerable for the first time in this entire series. The rest of the cast is just as good and are generally fun to watch. The plot is also thankfully much less busy and focused on setting up future films than the prior installment was. Problem with that, though, is the plot is quite dull. Considering each film has moved further away from the whole fantastic beasts concept and more on Dumbledore, the title is already a bit misleading. There’s also the fact the filmmakers seem intent on moving away from magic as there is barely any moments of epic wizarding duels. Instead, there’s a lot of political intrigue and behind the scenes espionage. Because that’s what I want in a film where witches and wizards are our main protagonists and antagonists. Is this an improvement over the painfully terrible second film? Yes. Is it still a somewhat dull affair where I don’t really care what happens? Also yes. At this point, I would be okay if we didn’t get the next two installments. Not like we all know how this will ultimately end anyway. |