I was a bit late in seeing this movie as it already premiered on Wednesday but I only managed to see it last night. This was all due to my favorite theater with Dolby Atmos sound system did not have any show around the 6 or 7 PM time on more than one occasion. Since we were already late anyway, I decided to just wait till the weekend to see the film at that theater, together with another movie which just premiered on Friday. Well we shall get on with the movie now.
Brief Story Line
Not long after the events of Fantastic Beasts and Where to find Them, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne - The Other Boleyn Girl etc) was back at London and trying to appeal for his right to travel. He was supported by his brother Theseus (Callum Turner) and his old friend during Hogwarts years Leta Lestrange (Zoë Kravitz - Kin, Mad Max: Fury Road etc). He even got the support from Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law - The Talented Mr. Ripley, Sherlock Holmes etc) though not in plain sight.
Newt later on went to Paris to investigate the mysterious Credence (Ezra Miller - Trainwreck, Justice League etc) and also trying to reunite with his love interest, Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston - Alien: Covenant etc). He was accompanied by his No-Maj friend Jacob (Dan Fogler - Balls of Fury, Good Luck Chuck etc) who was also looking for his girlfriend and Tina's sister Queenie (Alison Sudol).
Things would soon turn dangerous for the wizardry world, especially when Grindenwald (Johnny Depp - Murder on the Orient Express etc) manage to escape from prison and had his own agenda with Credence. Now Newt and his friends must go through the journey to find out the secret of Credence as well as save the world from the danger Grindenwald posed.
End of Brief Story Line
This movie was pretty similar to the first one that we saw around 2 years ago. It was having the similar darker tone from the Harry Potter series and a mature theme with some love story in it. The story was a bit more complex now with the appearance of the main villain in this series, i.e Grindenwald (played quite nicely by Johnny Depp). I think he suited the character of charismatic leader and also ruthless wizard rather perfectly.
Even though there were quite a lot new characters appear in this second movie, it did not take a lot of time for us to know them, since there were some background story given. But the nicest part definitely would be the latter scenes which gave us the truth behind all the mystery. I thought the director David Yates again did a great job in making sure we were kept interested with the plot till the end. Btw, Yates also directed the first movie, as well as four Harry Potter movies. So I guess it should not come as a surprise that he managed to maintain the same tone with the other movies.
Even though the movie had a rather dark tone, there were some scenes which were pretty amusing. I loved Jacob's character as he really added a bright color whenever he appeared. And Eddie Redmayne was amazing in his characterization (loved his interaction with Tina Goldstein). Jude Law was quite fantastic in his new role as the young Albus Dumbledore but I am pretty sure that his screen time would be a lot more in the next movie which would be very exciting indeed. Oh yes, one thing that audience would have to realize that there would definitely be a third (and possibly 2 more films) later. Which meant that this second movie should be seen as a movie setting us up for a grand finale and hence the ending would not provide us a complete conclusion.
This film was filled with numerous amazing visually stunning effects. I was in awe of the various scenes with CGI which were obviously very expertly done. With a hefty budget of USD 200 million, we would be very disappointed if it wasn't that great. The background music was nice, and the Dolby Atmos sound effects were put up to good use. Oh the effects were mostly done to bring "life" to those creatures in the Wizardry world, in particular the best to my opinion was the dragon-like creature.
I have to admit that J.K Rowling never ceased to amaze me with her creativity and imagination as she was able to write an almost completely new world with interesting characters set prior to the events of Harry Potter. I would not be surprised if she is able to create another new series set after Harry Potter (just like those Star Wars trilogies). Btw, this movie might bring a sense of nostalgic feeling when glimpses of Hogwarts were shown a bit, with that famous Harry Potter music theme. There was no mid or post end credit scene and the film was quite long as it had 134 minutes duration. Lucky for us, the audience who fully packed the studio were very concentrating while watching it, since there did not seem to be anybody playing their mobile phones, and only few people chatting in the theater.
Overall this is a movie that must be seen by those who have seen the first one & wanted to find out how the story continued and would end. Being fans of Harry Potter series ourselves, me and my wife were pretty entertained by the film. But for those who never saw the first Fantastic Beasts movie or any of Harry Potter movies, I doubt you would be able to understand let alone enjoy it.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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