This movie is not getting ratings as high as I thought when my dad and I went to see it. Part of that may be backlash against now-scandalous Johnny Depp as the title character, but that's not the only reason. Things get pretty different from the immediate predecessor.
The year is 1927, and most of the events take place in Paris. If you were hoping to see Voldemort forerunner Gellert Grindelwald go on trial, I'm afraid he escapes in the midst of extradition to Britain early on. (Even when playing a wanted murderer laying low, Depp refuses to look ordinary on screen anymore.) His objective is to find Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller), the young adult wizard finally in control of his immense powers, and recruit him to slaughter or subjugate all muggles. Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law), presently a Defense Against the Dark Art professor, taps beast collector Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) to reach Credence and talk him out of that crusade. In addition to the obvious challenges, Newt must contend with a distrustful Ministry of Magic and one Yusuf Kuma (William Nadylam), who wants to kill Credence for personal reasons.
Why is Newt of all people Dumbledore's best hope? Well, he did meet Credence before, and some of his beasts come in handy for tracking, among other tasks. Dumbledore himself is under too much suspicious scrutiny to take the mission, and a past deep fondness prevents him from fighting Grindelwald directly. Still, the arrangement feels pretty forced.
Of course, it's not just Newt and his pets out in the field. Tina (Katherine Waterston), now a U.S. Auror, has joined the search for Credence. Her sister Queenie (Alison Sudol) follows her, dragging along muggle boyfriend Jacob (Dan Fogler), whom Queenie has filled in on missing memories. Complicating matters on an emotional level is Leta Lestrange (Zoë Kravitz), Newt's ex-girlfriend, now engaged to his Ministry-employed brother Theseus (Callum Turner), who also has mixed feelings about Newt. As it happens, Leta has a unique connection to Credence.
In addition to characters returning from the first Fantastic Beasts, there are several more names familiar to Harry Potter fans. Nagini (Claudia Kim) turns out to have been born human before being cursed to a permanent snake form; seeing her apparently good makes her story all the more tragic. Minerva McGonagall (Fiona Glascott) makes a cameo as a professor -- one of several retcons by J.K. Rowling herein. Even Nicolas Flamel (Brontis Jodorowsky), the real-life scribe who claimed to have discovered the Philosopher's Stone, gets in on the action.
You may have noticed that I haven't said much about the beasts this time around. That's because they don't get as much attention as before, nor are there as many varieties in the spotlight. Only two returning species figure into the plot, and I think only two new ones do.
In a way, that's just as well. Having Newt run around gathering wild animals was fun, but it didn't lend itself to strong storytelling. A more human focus lets the plot thicken quite a bit, sometimes to the point of confusion, but only temporarily. It seems to have gotten smarter overall.
Alas, the shift also allows David Yates to make his darkest feature since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part I, if not his darkest ever. Lots of innocent characters, including infants, perish, and not always as mercifully as by the Killing Curse. Grindelwald's honeyed words lead many previously non-villainous mages to his side. Little if anything is resolved in a positive way when the credits roll. Even Jacob hardly offers any comic relief.
Only once in a while, like at the magical circus, did I get a reminder of what drew me to the franchise in the first place: envy. It was a world I liked to imagine being in, despite considerable dangers, with enough identifiable parallels to the real world to avoid excessive escapism. The latest outing focuses too much on the downsides to appreciate the upsides for long.
As entertainment in itself, TCoG strikes me as at least adequate. Perhaps what it does best is drum up interest in the coming threequel, tho we may not get a sense of closure until the fifth entry.
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