Just Been To See... Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes Of Grindelwald!

It was Sunday morning and there was an early session on at my local cinema, so I went.  I had other things to do today, but it only went till lunchtime, after all. I just made it in time,as the tram I needed was going to get me there too late for the ads and trailers.

If you have seen the first movie, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, you'll know all what happened and who the main characters are(and if you didn't, there is no point in seeing this one yet!). However, to refresh your memory, in that film, set in New York in the 1920s, young Hufflepuff Hogwarts graduate, Newt Scamander, came to New York for animal-related reasons and we got to see a lot of his beasties, hidden in his TARDIS suitcase, escaping and running around the streets, while MACUSA, the American Ministry of Magic, stuffed up, as Ministries of Magic do, and the evil Grindelwald, teenage Dumbledore's lover, now his enemy, did horrible things and a sad boy called Credence, who was vitally important to Grindelwald, apparently died.

This film started immediately with Grindelwald's escape while being taken back to Europe to be dealt with(the Yanks couldn't handle him and had had to change guards three times because he kept talking them into things). As I said - lucky I got there just in time!

Back in England, the lovable Newt has been banned from travel after what happened in New York, unless he agrees to go after Credence(still alive after all, in Paris, and clearly important to more than just Grindelwald). He has to go as an Auror, like his brother Theseus.

We get a view of his home, his assistant Bunty(she doesn't turn up again after he sends her home - will she be back for the next film?), his various beasties and - his Muggle/No-Maj American friend Jacob Kowalski and the lovely Queenie, whose sister Tina was Newt's romantic interest in the first film.

The four end up in Paris for various reasons, and we get to see the youngish Albus Dumbledore, who hopes Newt will do what he can't do - go after Grindelwald.

A lot more things happen, and there are quite a few characters running around Paris, probably too much going on to describe without spoilers.

What did I like about it? I enjoyed it very much. Newt is adorable! So is Jacob. We get to see Albus Dumbledore(Jude Law) before he was a wise old Gandalf figure in long robes(and incidentally, no one in the wizarding community seems to be wearing robes here, unless you count the uniforms of the Hogwarts students. Everyone is in Muggle clothing). He is already fairly wise, in a twinkling-eyed way, but also human and flawed, something he admits. In fact, the very reason why he can't go after Grindelwald is because of something truly stupid he and Grindelwald did as teenagers. Probably worse for Dumbledore, but just as stupid. We find out what it was near the end of the film.

The SFX were brilliant, and I believe some of the creatures were not entirely green-screened. The music, by James Newton Howard,  was wonderful.

We saw some flashbacks to Newt's teens, when he first met Leta Lestrange - and discovered that his Boggart was a paper-cluttered desk, as his greatest fear was being stuck in an office.

All the fuss made over Nagini because "woman of colour doomed to become Voldemort's slave" was not worth it for me. She was a tragic figure and, in this movie at least, was one of the good guys. Of course, so was little Anakin Skywalker in his first film... But she didn't go to the Dark Side yet, unlike another character whom I would never have expected to do that. And there were other people of colour in the movie, including one of the main characters, an African-French wizard. The American MACUSA is run by a woman of colour.  Leta Lestrange was also a person of colour. I have no doubt there will be people complaining about her situation too. But in the end, this universe belongs to Joanne Rowling, not to us. They are her characters and her stories and she has given pleasure to millions of people, child and adult alike.

Fans tend to think someone else's universe belongs to them, just because they love it. On Twitter, there was some woman insisting that black actors ought to be allowed to play roles originally intended for whites. "Like Hermione, for example?" I asked. "JKR doesn't mind." The response I got was that "JKR is a hypocrite and we are entitled to our black Hermione!" I pointed out politely that JKR had given us Hermione, after all, and again, was fine with it. I never did hear from her about why JKR was a hypocrite.

Having said that, I do wish this author would stop changing her own canon and, presumably, hoping we don't notice. Yes, there is a very brief appearance of Minerva McGonagall, who shouldn't even have been born yet, let alone be teaching at Hogwarts, but it is brief, and no doubt stuck in purely for the benefit of fans who would say, "Ooh, great, Professor McGonagall!" instead of "How dare she change the canon!" as they did.

But right near the end of the film, there is a much bigger change in the canon. I can't tell you what it is, due to major spoilers, but for sure it wasn't in any of the Harry Potter novels.

I have been struggling through a prequel to my novel and have concluded that the problem with a prequel is that you can't change anything that is going to show up in the next story.

Well, not unless your name is J.K Rowling, eh? ;-)

Still, well worth seeing if you're prepared to suspend disbelief.