Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Directed by David Yates, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald follows Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) as he and his friends (Katherine Waterston’s Tina and Dan Fogler’s Jacob) set out to take down Johnny Depp’s evil title character. Filmmaker Yates, armed with J. K. Rowling’s episodic screenplay, delivers a sluggish and mostly pointless sequel that falls right in line with its underwhelming predecessor, as the movie, which runs a punishing 134 minutes, lumbers through a momentum-free midsection that’s been suffused with lackluster, uninvolving episodes and character interactions – with the arms-length atmosphere perpetuated by Philippe Rousselot’s aggressively dimly-lit cinematography and an almost total lack of compelling protagonists. (Redmayne’s grating efforts here are hardly alleviated by the bland work of his various costars, ultimately.) The frustratingly difficult-to-follow narrative is exacerbated by a continuing emphasis on an antagonist (Ezra Miller’s Credence Barebone) whose existence and motivations generally make little to no sense, and although Depp turns in a predictably entertaining performance as the series’ primary villain, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald trudges into an interminable, special-effects-laden third act that ensures the whole thing concludes on as distressingly ineffectual a note as one could envision – which cements the picture’s place as another ill-advised installment in what’s shaping up to be a seriously disastrous series.

*1/2 out of ****