Re: Bohemian Rap City: Movies Thread
Alright...now my more in depth reaction to Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes of Johnny Depp's Acting. I will hide anything spoilery. Note: I am not a Harry Potter fan. I love FB1 but have seen about 20 minutes of all the HP films. My gf is a huge Potter nerd (seen all the movies 200 times, read the books...etc.) and her opinions were almost identical to mine. And before you say anything, she would sooner cut off a finger than agree with me if she has a choice
First of all the big problem is the story really serves no purpose. It is a long meandering movie that is supposed to be the bridge between FB1 (which I loved) and the climax which will be FB3. (note: supposedly they have signed to do up to FB5...no way this storyline can las that long) It is the Two Towers in this trilogy. That puts it at a disadvantage from the get go. It is going to be a lot of set up and exposition and probably have little pay off since all of the big parts will have to be in part 3. They kind of try and make it more like Empire in that there is a conflict at the end to at least give resolution to part of the story...but it is weak and underdone and in reality didnt really pay it off. Hell the movie is called The Crimes of Grindewald and honestly I am not sure what they are. I mean
yeah he takes a families house and kills them but outside of that all he did was escape from prison whilst in transport. And in reality no one even seems to care because 3 months later he is walking around Paris and no one stops him. Hell the Ministries know he is going to have a rally of his followers and they dont do anything to stop it or him outside fighting amongst themselves. They are more proactive trying to stop Newt from travelling than they are about stopping Grindewald...though they say his name in evil ways to try and make you think he is a bad dude!
As an offshoot of this lack of interesting story the characters almost all are weakened because of it. In fact, outside of Newt and Dumbledore none of the characters really grow in any way, or do anything overtly interesting. Most of them take massive steps back and become boring and uninteresting. Some of them become downright stupid. Queeny went from charming and quirky to annoying and stupid by the end of the film. This ruins the Jacob character who was one of my favorite parts of the first film because he spends half the movie chasing after her upset and pouting. Leta Lestrange was just a waste of a character.
To the point that when she dies, something that was built up to as a major plot point, it had no emotional heft or value. It just sort of happens and eh its done. This disappointed my gf quite a bit as was Credence whose story was so mindnumbingly boring and overwrought I really hoped he would die. His plotline was beaten over your head so much you would think it was a Christopher Nolan film
The twist on who he really is at the very end was kind of cool, but they spent so much time on the bait and switch it just didnt pay off like it should Every Wizard in the Ministry looks incompetent much on the level of the Jedi in the Prequels. The only characters that move forward at all are Newt, Dumbledore and Grindewald which brings me to the real reason this movie was a downgrade...
JOHNNY DEPP SUCKS! Whatever this dude had back in the day is completely lost now. His acting in this film is mediocre at best and he honestly he spends most of it mailing it in. He is neither foreboding or devious and even in the moments when he is doing something somewhat evil he comes off as weak and lame. Part of that is on Depp who wasnt even trying, but a lot of that was on the story itself. Grindewald pontificates like a Bond Villain but is about as interesting as King Tut on the old Batman TV Series. The movie sets him up as sort of the Magical World version of Hitler but he has no charisma and he strikes almost no fear. Even when the "heroes" encounter him they dont seem too scared, they are just sort of there and it just sort of happens. Then he gives his Patton/Hitler style speech which is uninspiring as written and flat as acted so the whole climax to the film falls apart. Honestly the only interesting thing about Grindewald at all is his relationship to Dumbledore but even that wasnt developed enough. THAT should have been the crux of the story, instead it was one of like 4 storylines that run concurrently and just get in each others way. Since Depp puts in no effort and the story doesnt build Grindewald at all the main villain is just some well dressed guy with spikey hair and miscolored eye who talks monotone and does very little. When the villain sucks, the movie has major issues. Honestly, I think Colin Farrell would have been a better Grindewald...
There are parts of the film that are fun. The beasts of course are great when they show up and Newt is still fun as heck. He is just missing Jacob his partner in crime. The set pieces are great as well. The story just was incomplete.
