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Sequel treads familiar path
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (12A) ●●● ●●
The second instalment of the Fantastic Beasts series sees even further connections to the Harry Potter universe.
Leading man Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander teams up with a younger Dumbledore (Jude Law) to try and put an end to the threat posed by the evil Grindelwald ( Johnny Depp).
I was a fan of the first Beasts flick, while realising it lacked the magic of Potter at its best and was putting the building blocks in place for future entries.
This sequel feels more like it belongs alongside Hogwarts finest, but there’s even more set-up for events to come.
David Yates is back behind the camera – helming his sixth Potter-flavoured movie – and Potter creator J.K Rowling once again penned the script. To say the pair know what they’re doing would be an understatement and the mix of darkness and light is as strong as ever.
The sense of spectacle is undeniable as the location change from New York to Paris proves to be an inspired decision.
Redmayne is more convincing in a role he slightly struggled with last time around; the 36-year-old seems to enjoy the extra peril Newt finds himself in.
He also plays off Law extremely well and while the latter’s Dumbledore is very different to the elderly curmudgeon Richard Harris and Michael Gambon delivered in the Potter series, Law is a charismatic, mischievous presence.
But a barely recognisable Depp doesn’t serve up the same level of unnerving malice Colin Farrell did in the previous flick, although he’s not helped by limited screen time.
Everyone else gets rather lost in the shuffle as Rowling’s story crams in a cavalcade of plot strands that even the two-hour-plus running time struggles to maintain.
It’s nice to see Tina (Katherine Waterston) and Jacob (Dan Fogler) – and at the darker end of the good-evil scale, Credence (Ezra Miller) – back but they are inferior to the well-developed characters featured in the sequel’s predecessor.
I feel slightly churlish complaining about the fact too much is going on as you’ll never be bored and most of the set-pieces are thrill-aminute stuff.
The array of “beasts” involved are a step up too, with glorious seaweed-skinned Kelpies and a lion-esque creature capable of travelling 1000 miles in a day.
Yates’ and Rowling’s crowd-pleasing decision to head back to Hogwarts was very wise as it pushes all of the right nostalgia buttons, while eagle-eyed Potter fans will spot a few Easter eggs planted on screen.
The Crimes of Grindelwald is a fun ride, then, but not the upgrade on the original I was hoping for.
With three more entries already confirmed, I suppose Yates and Rowling have to hold a few things back; it’s just a shame they can’t dripfeed a little more quality onto their journey’s first couple of steps.