Fantastic Beasts: the Crimes of Grindelwald

5/10

Fantastic Beasts: the Crimes of Grindelwald is perhaps one of the biggest let-downs of the year.

Harry Potter universe, great. Johnny Depp as the bad guy, great. Action-packed trailer, great.

It was all lining up to be epic, but what we got was an epic let-down and epically convoluted.

You get the impression J.K. Rowling had too much content to cram into one movie, so she watered down and strung out the plot to cover two.

The latest Fantastic Beasts drags its heels in all the wrong places, with mountains made out of mole hills and seemingly irrelevant characters.

Depp is great in his role as Grindelwald, it is just a shame his character is not given a chance to shine.

Jude Law does well to emulate the Harry Potter-era Dumbledore while the rest of the cast is a case of as you were from the first film.

The first movie set up the sequel, which then has not delivered, spending its entire plot trying to set up the next one.

The Crimes of Grindelwald had so much promise and potential, but some costly decisions appear to have been made and the movie suffers for it.