Nicole

What do you call a movie in which fantastic beasts have 15 minutes of screentime, and a character named Grindelwald commits 1 or 2 crimes? Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald? That’d be weird, right?

Pros:
- JK’s imagination. Even when a movie messes up as much as this one does, it’s still one of the most charming and imaginative universes put to screen.
- Pretty well directed with great performances
- Newt (gets more development here) and Jacob
- Queenie’s storyline (if you pay close attention, I think it all adds up)
- The beasts, who are reduced to tools for Newt here, are a fun and creative addition
- The climax, Grindelwald’s speech and motivation
- Visuals, score and CGI (this was especially improved after the first film)
- Action scenes (opening scene and bookstairs chase)

Cons:
- Incredibly incoherent (they really should’ve scrapped a lot of characters and their storylines, in my opinion: Leta, Nagini, the black wizard, and even Dumbledore, as they don’t contribute a lot to this particular story).
—> Also, a lot of scenes are pointless (like the underwater creature)
- Two characters are still incredibly annoying (in my opinion those are Credence and Tina), although I’m not sure it’s the writing or acting that makes me hate them so much
- The ending feels like bad fan fiction; good twists should have subtle hints, JK should know this above anyone else
- Too much exposition
- A few scenes are underlit, or too dark
- Some continuity errors (and no, I’m not just talking about the one that has already been reported everywhere)
- The CGI on those cat creatures wasn’t that great

4/10

I guess it was pretty shocking for when it was released, but I personally didn't find the story enjoyable. There are a few pieces of the story they slowly reveal, but nothing was really interesting/exciting to me. Maybe I have seen too many similar movies that have improved upon the formula since this was released.

Initial Reaction

The Good
• The sets and world design are hands down some of the best the series has to offer. Really above and beyond on how they could expand the amazing lore.
• Music is also good. Mixing with the old theme still carries on here from the previous film, and it works.
• The opening. It's amazing, truely a fantastic opening to what seemed to be such a promising movie. The best opening to any Wizarding World film.
• New creature designs are spectacular. Beautiful to behold.

The Bad
• The plot is awful. This is a set up film. It goes nowhere. Having a prequel means to expand upon something we don't know the ending too. Or at least be interesting enough to care about something else that we don't know the finale too. This movie does neither.
• Zero stakes.
• Predictable if you know how they screwed up characters.
• There is a serious lacking of motivation from every character. Except Dumbledore possibly.
• Continuity errors that the first film justified, but here they just forget about.
• Acting is ok but I really didn't care about these characters they are trying to make me love. The first film made me care. Here, it's just like they aren't the same people.
• Though, I will commend the dark tone it carries for the first half or so. Its comedy that it tried to slot it, didn't work at all.

Other
No post-credit scenes after the film finishes.

Conclusion
This is without a doubt, the worst film so far in the franchise. I say so far, because apparently there are going to be 3 more movies. Which I doubt after this. Truely a disappointment as I am left dissatisfied.

I FUCKIN LOVE THIS MOVIE AND EVERYONE IN THIS MOVIE.
I'M BURSTING WITH HAPPINESS AFTER WATCHING IT!
SO FUN! SO ORIGINAL! SO AWESOME!
99% ON RT - FUCK YEAH!
BEST MODERN HIGH SCHOOL MOVIE OF THE DECADE.

Was it the best movie I’ve seen in the world? No. Best movie of an awful year of lockdowns and generally poor productions? Still no.
But does it deserve a 3.5 star rating on IMDb? Hell no!
I love Octavia Spencer and Melissa McCarthy but never seen them act together and never realised they were actual life long friends! Jason Bateman was typically amusing too.
I enjoyed this movie for what it was. It was cheesy, lighthearted and generally a bit of fun.

Plain and enjoyable movie. Rajkummar Rao's acting skills were impressive. Bollywood movies like these are rare these days.

I've missed these crazy characters. As usual, the mystery here isn't the focal point, but it's still solid and it still gets solved. No, the focus is the characters and their interactions and, most importantly, the real-world ties that led to this Lassie-centric episode. I can usually tell when a cast is tight, and this group convinced me early on that they got along just fine when the cameras stopped rolling. So it didn't surprise me that they all took Omundson's stroke hard and went out of their way to make him a big part of this one, and I love 'em all for that. And other than a few isolated moments when the comedic timing was showing a bit of rust, this one was otherwise cringe-free and a ton of fun. And man, it was great to see Omundson doing so well after such a serious scare and setback. Here's hoping that he continues to make such an amazing recovery, and I hope that we see another of these movies sooner, rather than later.

A perfectly satisfactory film for anyone who has never even heard of The Lion King before. For the rest of us: You can't fall in love for the first time a second time, no matter how good the CGI is.

I'll quote lil' Simba: "Meh!" :D

What a fantastic unknown gem. It absolutely had me on the edge of my seat and bite nailing all the time, it was more scarier than many "horror" films. It has great agony and tense to the roof. Amazing how true the whole social think can make you a terrorist in just one comment. How all the news outlets can copy paste a post without any fact checking and just release a name and a picture and most people dont realize that this is happening. They dont filter tha information this is happening already. it is shocking!

Fantastic Ending. A must see movie.