Author: Zach Johnson / Source: E! Online
Warner Bros. Pictures’ Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald—the second of five original adventures in J.K. Rowling‘s Wizarding World—is premiering in theaters nationwide Friday.
At the end of the first movie, 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the dark and powerful wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) was captured by MACUSA, thanks to Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne). Grindelwald escaped custody, of course, and now he’s using his followers to ensure pure-blood wizards will one day rule over all non-magical beings.
To stop him, Hogwarts professor Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) turns to Newt, a former pupil.The ensemble cast includes Isaura Barbé-Brown as Laurena Kama, Poppy Corby-Tuech as Vinda Rosier, Carmen Ejogo as Seraphina Picquery, Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski, Brotis Jodorowsky as Nicolas Flamel, Cornell John as Arnold Guzman, Claudia Kim as Nagini, Zoë Kravitz as Leta Lestrange, Ezra Miller as Credence barebone, Ólafur Darri Òlafsson as Skender, Derek Riddell as Torquil Travers, Wolf Roth as Spielman, David Sakurai as Krall, Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson as Grimmson, Alison Sudol as Queenie Goldstein, Callum Turner as Theseus Scamander, Katherine Waterston as Tina Goldstein, Jessica Williams as Lally Hicks and Victoria Yeates as Bunty. The film reunited director David Yates with Rowling a fifth time.
David Heyman, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram served as producers on the darker fantasy film, while Neil Blair, Danny Cohen, Tim Lewis and Rick Senat served as executive producers. With a runtime of 134 minutes, the movie is rated PG-13 for some sequences of fantasy action.
Here’s what critics are saying about Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald:
• “A huge step up” from its predecessor, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald “has better and at times galvanizing special effects, a darker tone and a high-stakes battle between good and evil,” The Hollywood Reporter‘s Caryn James writes. “Best of all, its characters are more vibrantly drawn, and tangled in relationships that range from delightful to lethal.
” However, Depp “grandstands in one more gimmicky, costume-driven performance,” which “grew tiresome many movies ago.” But as “one secret is revealed” in the film, James writes, “other mysteries pile up. Credence discovers the truth about his lineage, a revelation that may make you think, ‘Huh? They are from the same family?’ But this new, improved sequel suggests that even when Rowling seems to have gone astray, before long she knows just what she’s doing.”
• “Darker and bolder,” Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald “intertwines different eras of the Potter mythology and delivers a more relevant cinematic villain than that malevolent snake face, Voldemort,” USA Today‘s Brian Truitt writes. “Old-school Potterheads will rejoice, though fans of the charmingly quirky group of heroes from the first Beasts may lament their do-gooders getting lost in a growing magical landscape.” Yates is “a master of juggling the big, action-packed set pieces with gripping character moments,” Truitt adds, imbuing “a childlike wonder with critters that include an underwater seaweed dragon called a Kelpie and the skeletal, flying horse-like Thestrals who take part in Grindelwald’s awesome airborne jailbreak.”
• “Newt remains one of the most distinctive heroes in blockbuster cinema, a quiet introvert who approaches every character and every beast with love and understanding and no small amount of awkwardness,” The Wrap‘s William Bibbiani writes. Redmayne has “a firmer grasp on what…
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