Last week I wrote a pretty harsh post about Harry Potter, and was relieved that others too think the Boy Who Lived should finally die.

When in the cinema to see the new Fantastic Beasts, it actually did feel like Harry Potter was dying. We went the day after the release, and the theatre was almost empty. When I was growing up every showing was packed for the first week at least. It was a sad realisation. I also felt really old that the kids that were there weren’t even alive when Harry Potter first came out.

Brace yourself for spoilers ahead.

What I Thought Of Crimes Of Grindelwald

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is the sequel to Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them which followed magizoologist Newt Scamander to New York on the look out for fantastic beasts for his book, and a secret mission Dumbledore sent him on.

The second film sees Newt go to Paris to track down the obscurus, Credence, and stop him from joining the wrong side; Grindelwald’s.

Grindelwald’s been a much anticipated character – but people aren’t happy with the casting. Although not physically present in the Harry Potter books and movies, we learn that he was a close friend to Dumbledore as a teenager. Both wanted to see wizards come out of hiding. Dumbledore, of course, had a change of heart. A fight between the two resulted in the death of Dumbledore’s sister, Ariana, and neither knew who cast the curse who killed her. Grindlewald’s presence in the series means we might finally find out who killed Ariana.

What fans seem to be the most eager about is the acknowledgment of Dumbledore’s sexuality as he was in love with Grindelwald. Yet they blew it.

Grindelwald is hyped up to the most evil wizard before Voldemort, “wizard Hitler” as he’s commonly called online. Yet, he didn’t seem that bad, yet – I’m sure some is charisma and how bad people don’t hop right into doing evil things, they build up to it. He fell flat compared to Voldemort who was introduced to us immediately as being willing to murder a baby with no hesitation. This movie could have been a dark tale about all the evil he’s done, and it wasn’t.

If you’re not invested in the Harry Potter world you’ll like this movie. It has a decent plot and story. When I ignored everything I know about the Wizarding World I could enjoy it.

Newt’s become one of my favourite characters in the whole franchise. I also think that Erza Miller is doing so great as Credence. I think the cast deserve better than what they’re getting.

The Mistakes

They actually broke canon. They included Professor McGonagall to add more Harry Potter nostalgia to the story. The film is set in 1927, and she told Umbridge in the books that she didn’t start teaching in Hogwarts until the 1950s. She wouldn’t have been born by 1927, or at least, an adult. They actually took the year she was born off of Pottermore to try hide the mistake. It also broke canon by having people apparate into Hogwarts.

They really tried hard with the Harry Potter nostaglica. Nicolas Flamel briefly featured, and added nothing to the plot. Nor was there actually much of a reason for them to go to Hogwarts. Again, they wanted to remind us that this is a Harry Potter film, like we didn’t already know.

Some of the character developments since the first movie seemed off as well, especially Queenie. The usual meticulous attention to detail is gone.

You could argue this was a rushed cash grab. Three more movies is a big risk so they next ones really need to up their game – especially if they plan on keeping Johnny Depp because lord knows his reign as Hollywood’s leading man is coming to an end. A lot of fans boycotted the movie.

Final Thoughts

Crimes of Grindelwald actually exceeded my expectations, which says a lot given how harsh I’ve been in this review. I still stand by what I said in my last post. Please let this series be the end.

Check out these Harry Potter alternatives an quirky fan creations.