Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

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Looks like this will be the first Wizarding World film to get a rotten score. Very surprising and disappointing considering all the talent involved.

It seems to me this is likely a result of Rowling's inability to transition from a novelist to a screenplay writer. Steve Kloves wrote the screenplays to the HP films.

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Something weird happened to Rowling after she wrote her best book (Prince). She never became the same master storyteller that she used to be back in the day.£

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DH is a great book, and in my opinion the best of them all. I don't think it has anything to do with her getting worse since HBP. But the material got worse after she stopped writing novels. Had she just stuck to focusing on that and let other people (possibly better people than Yates) deal with the filmmaking, everything would have been fine.

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Master Virgo wrote:
November 9th, 2018, 12:50 pm
Something weird happened to Rowling after she wrote her best book (Prince). She never became the same master storyteller that she used to be back in the day.£
Is this criticism limited to her Wizarding books or applies to other work? Cause I think The Casual Vacancy was very good.

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Sanchez wrote:
November 9th, 2018, 1:47 pm
DH is a great book, and in my opinion the best of them all. I don't think it has anything to do with her getting worse since HBP. But the material got worse after she stopped writing novels. Had she just stuck to focusing on that and let other people (possibly better people than Yates) deal with the filmmaking, everything would have been fine.
I don't think it's Yates, it is the screenplay. The 4 Yates HP movies all received good to great critical acclaim. Whereas the 2 Fantastic Beasts films are basically average, and these are the 2 films that Rowling has written the screenplays for.

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Master Virgo wrote:
November 9th, 2018, 12:50 pm
Something weird happened to Rowling after she wrote her best book (Prince). She never became the same master storyteller that she used to be back in the day.£
you never answered why you don't love DH the book. interested since it's probably my favorite or second favorite of the series (competing with Prince).
Skyab23 wrote:
November 9th, 2018, 2:38 pm
I don't think it's Yates, it is the screenplay. The 4 Yates HP movies all received good to great critical acclaim. Whereas the 2 Fantastic Beasts films are basically average, and these are the 2 films that Rowling has written the screenplays for.
Rowling needs someone to adapt her ideas for her. Imagine, for example, what an unruly mess some of the movies would've been had they not deleted or reshuffled significant characters, action scenes. They would be a mess if adapted literally. That is what we are seeing here, and since Crimes is an infinitely busier and more "complex" story everything becomes an incoherent mess.

I'm a guy who's naturally analytical towards narrative, as I think most of you guys would agree. Beasts 2 is the first movie in a very long time I can say I literally did not understand the plot that wasn't also Transformers or something.


-Vader

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@V sorry that I didn't respond earlier. Need to find the proper time to write a huge novel about it. Well no one's going to read it but at least I won't come off as impolite.£

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The 6th book is a better book than DH imo because of the writing style/prose and because of the lack of mystery in DH. In DH, it too often feels like Rowling is much more concerned with wrapping plot points up whilst wasting time on the Harry/Hermione/Ron camping trip in the woods and there are too many things to wrap up. DH does not wrap up a number of themes that were prevalent throughout the series, such as the absurdity of putting people into different Houses (notice how she never really subverts the preconceived notions that the Slytherins are assholes, such a wasted opportunity to humanize these characters); plus we also have all the stuff with wizards discriminating against magical creatures that does not get resolved, even though discrimination and prejudice is supposedly at the centre of the story...I guess once the battle was over, things went on like they did before and noone realized in the end how horrible the House Elves had it, I guess. The epilogue is terrible. It also feels a bit late to raise doubts about Dumbledore's character tbh, even though I appreciate the attempt. The Elder Wand and how wands work in general is not that interesting to me because it essentially amounts to a convoluted loophole after-the-fact that allows the hero to triumph in the end.

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Despite its messy and wheel-spinning/chess pieces moving into position nature...I really quite dug it?

JK is attempting her own EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and you know what, when it works it REALLY works (eg that final act). For the love of god, JK, please do one more film instead of...three...

I really really dig the tone and what they were trying to do here. But after BEASTS 1's primary focus on worldbuilding this just turned it up to far too much with so. many. characters. and key plot elements (such as central mystery) thrown in the GAs face after mere cameos in #1 (eg Leta Lestrange). What critics have said about fan service is right, there is that element of throwing too much at wall. I'm still ambivalent on how I feel about this being such a 'moving chess pieces in position' film but you know what once they are in position it's so satisfying.

Cast is of course great and just elevates and papers over a lot of the cracks (even though a lot are kinda glorified cameos). Definitely want to spend more time with the main characters. And James Newton Howard's score, my god! (As well as a surprisingly great use of 3D! I get why WB pushed it so much here). Overall, strengths/weaknesses taken into account I'd rate it on par with 1. Again, please just do one more film!

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This is such a strange movie. It shows a lot of strength when it's focused on one thing, and then falls apart again when it cuts too quickly between subplots. At least with Infinity War, it dedicates a set amount of time between storylines instead of jumping around all over the place and expects you to follow along. Some of the cinematography choices were just plain weird, especially those scenes where it was shot like Peep Show. And there were some action scenes where I could never tell what was going on, particularly the opening scene.

However, on paper, I dig a lot of the revelations this movie shows. The third act is quite solid, even though I was not a fan of how the final revelation was executed. Depp was pretty good, but wasn't the Depp that I've been wanting to see again. I also thought the score was superb. I agree with everybody who says that JK Rowling just does not know how to structure a film. She is so in love the world she has created, she wants to put so much into her stories, it starts to feel bloated and is unable to cohere smoothly. If this franchise is to continue, which I personally would like to see, I do hope they get Steve Kloves back to help Rowling. If not, then I can't see a bright future for the next 3 movies.

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