Monday Movie Mania - Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

We caught the second Fantastic Beasts flick at the theater after seeing the first on HBO last year. Instead of continuing it's own path in the Wizarding World, this edition circles back to Harry Potter's past, which is both good and bad.


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SPOILERS


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PROS
1) Jude Law as the younger Dumbledore was spectacularly on point.

2) We learned more about Nagini's tragic backstory, which makes me sympathize with why she turned to Voldemort.

3) Also, I loved how quiet, shy Newt confronted Dumbledore about how he uses people.


CONS
1) The first half of Fantastic Beasts 2 is a mess between assumptions that the viewer read the books (Grindelwald was barely mentioned in the first movie series, much less his full history) and the awful editing, like chunks were ripped out to keep the time down to a reasonable running length.

2) Leta Lestrange was used to create unnecessary tension without fully fleshing out her character. It made her sacrifice feel cheap.

3) The movie wasn't bad. It simply was a set-up for future films without being a complete story in itself. That's rather sloppy story-telling on JK Rowling's part. I guess I expect more from her after seeing what she's capable of.


Overall, I have to give Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grndelwald 5 stars out of 10.