November 21, 2018 – I failed to track the reviews on this one. I should have done so. I could have saved myself some money on movie tickets. This movie, based on a script by J.K. Rowling, and directed by Potter, and Fantastic Beasts, veteran David Yates, is a mess from beginning to end. It looks like a placeholder movie (like Harry Potter and the Deadly Hallows part one) with about a half an hour of needed narrative missing, and it needs a sequel or two to finish the story.

I've read that Harry Potter fans are trying hard to make sense of some big plot reveals concerning two characters, Credence Barebone (played by Ezra Miller, reprising his role from the first film) and Leta Lestrange (played by Zoë Kravitz who had a cameo as this character in the first film). If these characters were at least interesting, or if they were given something interesting to do in the movie, or if they had clear motivations for their decisions, I would have liked this film, but the movie fails on each point. These characters instead are afflicted with pointless angst and aimless motivations.

More aimless motivations plague two another characters that I liked a lot in the first film, sisters Queenie and Tina Goldstein (played by Alison Sudol and Katherine Waterston, respectively). In the first film, these characters were clearly defined, with clear, believable motivations. In the sequel, both become enigmatic, disheartening characters with random motivations and puzzling, unmoored behaviors ranging from merely annoying to tragic. A young Albus Dumbledore (played by Jude Law of “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword”) appears, but is relatively inactive and uninteresting as a character in this film.

That leaves us with two characters who make sense and are at least a little bit interesting. Newt Scamander (played by Eddie Redmayne, reprising his role) and his brother Theseus Scamander (played by Callum Turner of “Assassin's Creed”). These two characters have somewhat understandable motivations. The dramatic tension between the two of them works pretty well. Jacob Kowalski (played by Dan Fogler, reprising his role) is my favorite character from the first film, but here, he appears to be as frustrated by Queenie's actions as I was. I shared his frustration, being a reasonable man surrounded by unreasonable people. The potential for a couple of good romantic plot lines go to waste in this movie. Instead, the story goes in less compelling directions.

The dark wizard himself, Gellert Grindelwald (played by Johnny Depp, who also briefly appears as this character at the end of the first film) seems evil enough, but he is a shallow, two-dimensional character. He also appears to be less persuasive than he is supposed to be. There are hints that he shares a past with Dumbledore, but there is not enough revealed about his character to really flesh him out.

So, Grindelwald is the bad guy. The good wizards want to kill him because he cannot be contained. That's the story. If you saw the first movie, you know that the character Credence Barebone was killed in the first movie. He was destroyed, dead, kaput, obliterated, incinerated, unmade. Yet, here he is again in the second film. Not a scratch, not a scar, good as new. So there is no point for Potter fans to be disturbed when a certain character is killed in this movie, because this character can certainly come back from the dead in the next movie. Why worry about it? This is just one of the many things about this movie made no sense to me.

One of the main plot points in this film is Credence Barebone's lengthy search for his parents, or other members of his family, so he can discover his true identity. This is interesting only if the character himself is interesting, but he's not. Instead, this character seems to be on a diet of novocaine. The movie picks at this scab of a storyline so long I wearied of it. This reminded me of the increasingly ridiculous motivations seen in horror film sequels: “You killed my second cousin on my mother's side, so I want revenge!” Really? That's the best you can do?

As you can probably guess, having seen all the other films in the Harry Potter Universe, I found this one deeply disappointing. I saw it in 3D. The 3D is good, as are the special effects, set design and production values. Redmayne, Depp, Fogler and Miller (see him in Perks of Being a Wallflower if you want to see what he can do with a great role) are all fine actors. The actors are talented, the director is tested, and the movie looks good, but the story falls apart. This film rates a D+.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2018 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Robert Roten can be reached via e-mail at .