I waited quite a bit to finally watch Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and Rotten Tomatoes had something to do with it. As of December 27, 2018 the film’s Tomatometer was 38% and the Critic’s Consensus Statement was: “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald has glimmers of the magic familiar to Harry Potter fans, but the story’s spell isn’t as strong as earlier installments”. As much as it pains me to say it, I have to agree. In my opinion, the film had two major pitfalls. There were too many characters with too many plot lines, and a final scene which left viewers with more questions than answers.
Even though the film had a low rating on Rotten Tomatoes; I don’t always agree with reviews and I love J.K. Rowling. So, I decided to watch the film anyway. I noticed there were a lot of characters to keep track of. There were multiple people in the Ministry of Magic, the staff and students at Hogwarts, Newt and his crew, Grindelwald and his followers, Credence and the people with the traveling magical circus, and Credence’s family and Lestrange’s family in flashbacks. Since I love Rowling, the only explanation I can think of for the army of characters this round is that the backstories presented, and interactions among the characters, will play a critical role in the next film. Of all these characters, I felt the most important for this film were: Newt Scamander, his brother Theseus Scamander, Theseus’ fiancée Leta Lestrange, Credence Barebone, Yusuf Kama, Grindelwald, and Nicolas Flamel.
Allow me to breakdown the importance of the characters. Dumbledore sends Newt on a mission to Paris, France to keep Credence from Grindelwald. Theseus, Newt’s brother, works for the Ministry of Magic as an auror, and he’s part of the crew tasked with tracking and taking into custody Grindelwald (since Grindelwald escaped from his previous incarceration due polyjuice potion and some ingenuity). Theseus’ fiancée Leta Lestrange also works for the ministry, and her character–we’re made to believe–is linked to Credence–but we later learn there is no relation. Grindelwald kills Lestrange towards the end of the film, we can also interpret her death as one of sacrifice since she saves the Scamander brothers by buying them more time to escape as she duels Grindelwald. Credence Barebone is important to both Dumbledore and Grindelwald. At first, I believed he was important to Grindelwald because of the level of destruction he could cause, but at the end of the film we learn Credence is a Dumbledore. This adds a layer of complexity because it could mean that Grindelwald intends to use him against professor Dumbledore either to get the professor back on Grindelwald’s side or to exploit Dumbledore’s love for his family to reach some other end. Yusuf’s important because he’s related to Lestrange, and he vowed to kill Credence for revenge. Grindelwald’s important because besides being the titular character, he’s one of the strongest–and most evil– wizard’s that ever lived (he also eventually gets defeated, but since that epic battle hasn’t taken place yet, they have to keep him around). Lastly, Nicolas Flamel is important because his home is the safe house in Paris where Newt and the others seek refuge. Also, Flamel helps the characters counter a dark charm cast by Grindelwald–which they otherwise would have been incapable of doing.
In closing, the final scene disturbed me. In my mind, the only character allowed to know things others do not is Dumbledore. So, imagine my outrage when Grindelwald appears to possess a fun factoid about the Dumbledore family, which presumably Dumbledore doesn’t know himself–Credence is Aurelius Dumbledore, Albus’ long lost brother. What the hell? Now, maybe professor Dumbledore does know he has a long lost brother, because we all know Dumbledore does not divulge a whole lot of information for whatever reason. However, if Grindelwald knows Aurelius and Albus are brothers–how did he get that information? And more importantly, what does he intend to do now that he has Credence on his side? There are three more films left in the Fantastic Beasts franchise. I certainly intend to get my questions answered.