FANTASTIC BEASTS 2
OUT 9 MARCH Digital HD 18 MARCH DVD, BD, 3D BD, 4K EXTRAS Extended cut, Featurettes, Deleted scenes (BD, 4K)
All creatures great and small, including Newt. But is it (animal) magic?
POn that front, alas, TCOG comes up seriously short. One supposedly key thread is a love quadrangle involving beast-wrangler Newt (Eddie Redmayne), his older bro Theseus (Callum Turner), the latter’s fiancée Leta (Zoë Kravitz) and Newt’s on-off new flame Tina (Katherine art two of J.K. Rowling’s proposed quadrilogy took $652m at the global box office: enough to sneak into 2018’s top 10, but also an all-time low for the Wizarding World series. So what’s missing from this big, dark, lavishly produced picture? Rowling herself may (inadvertently) have the answer. Reflecting on the sustained success of the Potter films, she says: “It was the relationships that kept people invested.”
Waterston). Plenty of baggage to unpack here, yet convoluted plotting (we get backstories within backstories) and stately pacing don’t strike many emotional sparks. It doesn’t help that Newt is even more self-effacing this time around; you start to miss the first Beasts’ manic pratfalls.
More disappointing, though, is the vaporous nature of Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) and Dumbledore’s (Jude Law) past relationship. Rowling pegs it as “passionate”, but that’s hard to glean from a wispy flashback and a couple of ambiguous remarks. The (screen)writer notes Dumbledore’s notorious habit of “withholding information”; the film could be accused of following his lead a little too closely.
At least the chap himself livens things up. Law brings a twinkle that no FX budget can buy, investing his scenes – particularly those at Hogwarts circa 1927 – with a playfulness rivalled only by the titular beasts. Those magical critters are less important to the story this time out, but they’re vital to our entertainment, whether it’s a living, spiralling Chinese dragon, bug-eyed demon cats or a baby niffler rocketing towards you atop a champagne cork.
The menagerie gets its due on the extras – which are chocka with spoilers, so don’t go near until you’ve seen the main feature. In lieu of a commentary,
there’s a sit-down with Wizarding World superfans-turned-cast members Evanna Lynch (aka Luna Lovegood) and Ezra Miller. Not only is the latter far more animated than he gets to be in TCOG (as the troubled Credence), he truly knows his shit.
A Credence-centred alt-opening is the most intriguing of the deleted scenes, while there’s insight into Depp’s line readings (and lederhosen). As for producer David Heyman’s claim that Grindelwald is a “more interesting” baddie than Voldemort… maybe not on this showing, though perhaps we should heed Rowling’s words of caution: “You have to let the story unfold before you draw conclusions.” Here’s hoping FB3 brings us a little closer to the day of reckoning.
Matthew Leyland