acid reflects

SO MANY REVELATIONS.
Newt Scamander carries around a heavy baggage of so many secrets and subplots, but it is still wondrous when they burst out of the bag.

As much as I would like to #protectthesecrets, there are a few here mentioned that can actually be derived from the trailers. So, SOME SPOILERS in the review.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
Directed by David Yates
Based on the books by J.K. Rowling

It’s like Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander the magician, performing decent magic tricks with superb production value – pulling out surprise after surprise from inside his magical bottomless luggage – in the Grand Opera House. It’s a big show, but you come out of it unsure whether the surprises required that much aplomb.

Working best as a byzantine lexicon to the expanding Potterverse for the already-initiated – the second installment to the planned five-part prequel to the events involving Harry Potter at Hogwarts – The Crimes of Grindelwald takes place a few years after the events of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.

After a long period of incarceration by the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA,) the dark wizard Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) is to be transferred to the custody of the UK Ministry of Magic when he escapes.

Back in London, Newt (Redmayne) turns down the offer for him to work alongside his brother Theseus (Callum Turner) at the Ministry of Magic. Theseus is married to Leta Lestrange (Zoë Kravitz) who was Newt’s former classmate at Hogwarts. The job then goes to the Ministry’s bounty hunter Grimmson (Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson) who turns out to be in Grindelwald’s employ in search of Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller) – the Obscurial who went into hiding after the MACUSA seemingly defeated the powerful Obscurus attack in New York.

Credence has been hiding in Paris anonymously as part of a wizarding circus where he met and befriended the Maledictus Nagini (Claudia Kim.) Tina (Katherine Waterson,) reinstated as an auror, manages to track down Credence, but Credence flees, in search of his true parents.

Anticipating Grindelwald’s sinister plan for wizards to take control of the world, Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) sends former student Newt on a mission to find Credence before Grindelwald does. Former sidekick Jacob (Dan Fogler) appears just in time to join Newt on his mission, but not after Newt lifts a love spell on Jacob cast by Queenie (Allison Sudol.)

The good guys and the bad guys are in a race to find Credence, whose importance grows each day Grindelwald gathers more supporters, and somehow Yusuf Kama (William Nadylam) knows why.

So many characters in a seemingly endless train of exposition to lay the ground for the action in the next installments in the coming years. It can be tiring if you’re not invested enough in the mythology. The movie is not the type for initiating toddlers to Rowling’s Wizariding World. In the Disney sense,

The film juggles several seemingly romantic subplots to varying success – that of between Newt and Tina, between Newt and Leta, some Leta and Theseus, Jacob and Queenie, some Credence and Nagini and, well (SURPRISE?) Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Jacob’s and Queenie’s is the funniest but also predictable. There’s a minor Dubledore-Newt master-and-padawan thing going on but it’s not a subplot at this point. There are Newt and Leta flashbacks in Hogwarts that have similarities with the flashbacks of young Snape in Deathly Hallows 2 (2011) in dramatic and romantic intent – but doesn’t get close to the impact of “Always.”

I keep wondering what the actual whack were Grindelwald’s list of crimes were in this movie. I mean, yes, he was plotting to rule the world by magical force. And yes he actually killed aurors but that was in the last movie.

With the beasts relegated to the narrative’s background (save maybe for the niffler and the Zouwu – which resembles a furry Chinese New Year lion/dragon) and some personal confusion about Grindelwald’s crimes, these made me think about the film’s title a few times. Where was Rowling taking this story to?

There is nothing to latch onto here emotionally speaking, because the film is constantly exposing plot information for future installments and to pigeonhole quite a few details unanswered in all eight Potter films. Like which classes did Dumbledore teach (and why) or, the elephant in the room is, what has Grindelwald got to do to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (if at all.) Exposition trouncing excitement from beginning to the last few minutes. And since this is just preparation for bigger skirmishes down the line, the climax doesn’t have much payoff after all the build-up, save for making Grindelwald’s plans equal with Hitler’s. If Grindelwald had a limited vocabulary and the temper of a six-year old, he’d be after the Mexican no-majs, if you get what I mean. It sure felt like Rowling was heading in that direction.

Period France (late 1920s, early 30s?) looks great and non-creature-related effects looked great as well, especially as seen in 3D IMAX. The music by James Newton Howard adds to the grandiose scale of the narrative, but no specific theme makes a lasting impression.

The film clearly belongs to Ezra Miller whose conflicted Credence is suddenly thrust into the center of the battle and is the subject of the all-too-jawdropping ending that singlehandedly makes the many plot details worth noting. Two hours of WTF, and a final two minutes of W.T.F.H.M.O.G.*

If your wand is ready, you have no choice but to see this. It is a fact of Potter life.

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*What The F, Holy Mother of G.