Disclaimer:  The views expressed here are mine alone and do not reflect those of allgames.com.

Introduction

I will cut to the chase and tell you what I thought about the Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald movie.  It was simply a movie that you should skip and spend your time doing something else that will probably be a lot more enjoyable than watching this movie.  When I chose to watch this movie at the theater, I knew there would be plenty of Computer-Generated Images (CGI) which was not a problem. Unfortunately, among other things, there was not an interesting, cohesive, attention grabbing story to somewhat match the CGI graphics to keep your attention throughout the film.

Storyline of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Movie

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald film is a science fiction movie where plenty of magic takes place, sometimes initiated by a character pointing a wand and oftentimes without seemingly anything used to prompt the magic. You will see characters disappearing into walls instead of walking through doors, moving from place to place by use of a rusty-looking bucket, arriving at their location through a piece of beat-up looking luggage and so forth.  

There was also a lack of creativity in the magic being performed. For example, during the movie there were nylon clothes floating  around in the air -- which a character in the movie said was a summons from the leader to gather at a certain place.  This scene could have been made interesting by having different bursts of light shine from buildings or even from the air, or someone announcing this gathering to the people while riding one of the “fantastic beasts”, etc.

Another problem  with the Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald movie was Identifying a solid storyline.  Spoiler Alert: When the movie starts, you may think it will be about a war or battle between the the wizards and the non-wizards.  However, such a battle did not take place. There were grandiose speeches made to the crowd led in some cases by Johnny Depp who played the part of Gellert Grindelwald but no out-right battles. Other storylines included one of the characters trying to locate his mother; and another scenario involved a misunderstanding between two characters relative to who is dating who and still another storyline is someone searching and ultimately finding their romantic interest.  

Comic Relief in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Movie

If you see the Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald movie, you probably will be able to spot the character who is trying his best to be humorous -- however, his humor did not register with the movie audience.  Even if he said a funny line or was placed in a laughable situation -- this would not have made a difference in the overall movie.  By not tying all the actions, characters into one major goal, this movie failed miserably with nowhere to go but down.

Acting Skills Displayed in the Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Movie

I guess Eddie Redmayne who played the character of Newt Scamander can be considered one of the major if not the main actor -- even though there were other probably more well known actors such as Zoe Kravitz, who played the role of Leta LeStrange, Jude Law who played the part of Albus Dumbledore and Johnny Depp was one of the leaders.

In my opinion, Eddie Redmayne could use a few acting lessons to bring his acting skills up to par. During the majority of the move, he walked around with his eyes wide as if he was surprised and he appeared to not comprehend fully what was going on around him.   Regarding the other actors -- personally, I was not a fan of the Zoe Kravitz’s forced English accent. Additionally, I expected much more from Johnny Depp’s acting. 

Assessment of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Movie

The above being said, all is not lost with the movie Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.   Spoiler Alert: I think one of the highlights was the CGI scene where one of the actors did a slow backward flip as she transformed into a snake.  Another positive was the camaraderie between two of the characters who made an oath not the fight against each other -- which they both kept. I also liked the diversity in this movie.

Another positive for me was I did not have to spend money to see it -- since I used a free movie credit. However, the negatives as I’ve discussed above far outweighed any positives.  To add to the negatives this movie is overly long and could have ended earlier by leaving out a few non-essential scenes. Instead, the movie dragged along with the endless foray of flashbacks, etc.

Unfortunately, I am unable to recommend you watch this movie in the movie theater, unless you want to see the snake transformation, or some animated CGI animals running around. Take my advice.  Look at the youtube video of the snake transformation. (Note: It looks better in the movies). I think you should save your time and money doing something that you enjoy.  If you are a fan of the Fantastic Beasts movies, then I highly recommend you wait to see  the Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald movie when it goes to DVD or to one of the streaming services.

Rating of the Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Movie

Based on a rating of 1 star to 5 stars with 5 stars being the highest, I rate the Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald movie 1 ½ stars.