RR168 Film Review Friday; Fantastic Beasts The Crimes of Grindelwald
Please pardon the faux pas of my mispronouncing the name of the antagonist. Apparently I had National Lampoon’s Vacation and the Griswold’s on my mind.
2018 PG-13 2hr 14 min IMDb 6.7/10, Adventure Family Fantasy. 37% Rotten Tomatoes Action & Adventure, Kids & Family, Science Fiction & Fantasy Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler Director: David Yates. Written by J.K. Rowling.
This movie is continuing on into what one reviewer calls the Potterverse—clever but more specifically the JKRowlingverse. It is not quite as smooth of the tongue. But this movie although is connects variables of the Harry Potter movie franchise it is a prequel. As you may know prequels are not to be relied on for the same characters and content.
Just look at the Star Trek franchises with such phenomenal misses as Deep Space Nine.
Still I adore this type of film. The fantastical world of magic and steampunk.
Be warned there is a steep learning curve on this particular film. For instance, I was deep in the trenches of figuring out who’s who that I lost some of the content of the film. After reading one review excerpt I find that this affliction was not confined to me. This reviewer wrote “The production values are amazing …but there are so many convoluted subplots and new characters that some wizarding favorites (creature and human) are underused”
There were too many snippets it was hard to follow and I found myself wanting more explanation on some subplots. It was a little like there were too many things going on in the film.
I suspect that this book to film conversion lost quite a bit in translation. I am certain that if you read the book it would have made more sense. I am also reasonably certain that the folks that have read the book may have been disappointed by some of the shortcomings in detail the film may have had.
This is the movie that you HAVE to pay attention to and it is best to watch it more than once because it is jam packed with info. Definitely watch it sober and when you are ready to think about the movie you are watching.
With all that said I would recommend this movie if you like steampunk, magic, prequels of phenomenal franchises. Watch this movie if you are into The Hobbit, The SpiderWick Chronicles, and Lord of the Rings.
Hopefully some of the superfluous oddities and information will be whittled down as we go. But I still enjoyed watching this movie and only regrets being able to watch it a few times in a row to (hopefully) get the full impact.
Research and Links:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4123430/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fantastic_beasts_the_crimes_of_grindelwald
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/fantastic-beasts-the-crimes-of-grindelwald-2018
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