Fantastic Beasts And How To Fix It
Muggle’s rejoice! Warner Bros announced on Monday that the
untitled Fantastic Beasts 3 film will release on November 12, 2021. That will
be three years since the release of the previous instalment, Fantastic Beasts:
The Crimes of Grindelwald. The 2021 release date means Warner Bros are taking
more time in developing the third instalment, moving away from their original
plan of releasing each instalment every two years. Looking out how The Crimes
of Grindelwald performed, this shouldn’t be a surprise.
The last instalment made $653m worldwide on a $200m budget (not including marketing), meaning it barely broke even, whilst it was down from the $814m made by Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. In a nutshell, things are not going well for Fantastic Beasts and Warner Bros. In the announcement, Ron Sanders (President, worldwide theatrical distribution and home entertainment) reiterated that the plan is still to make this a 5-film franchise, meaning the creative teams have their work cut out to get audiences back on board with this franchise. Now I actually enjoyed the first Fantastic Beasts, it was fun, magical, and it was a great introduction to Newt Scamander and the rest of the cast. The film got the right balance between bringing you back in the world of Harry Potter, whilst also being its own standalone adventure. And it is this strength where I feel The Crimes of Grindelwald didn’t uphold, and was far too heavy on plot and tying the two series in.
The second instalment felt very complicated with plot, and was a great example of where fan service and tying plot points together can go wrong. As a viewer who enjoys the Harry Potter films, but does not know all the detailed lore from the books, I felt the film was going out of its way to make me feel dumb. There were far too many times where characters pop-up, and story points are revealed which loses you as an audience member, as the film just expects you’ll know the finer details. Most serious Harry Potter fans I knew loved the film, because they understood all the references, but for many others like me it just didn’t work. For these next few film to work, the creative teams really need to sit down and flesh out the storyline in a way which is easy to follow for non-hardcore fans like myself. Having a detailed plot isn’t the problem, but it’s a problem when you rely on plot devices from the source material without explaining it on screen. The important thing to do is tell a great story, and use fan service to enhance the experience, not rely upon it.
Then there are the characters. The first film did a great job of introducing the characters, making you admire them and like them enough to want to see more. But the character development fell flat in The Crimes of Grindelwald. We didn’t get to know the characters further, and didn’t go deeper into Newt’s motivations. This is supposed to be Newt’s series, and the creative team need to make sure they re-establish this. The foursome of Newt, Jacob, Queenie, and Bunty were delightful in the first film, and Fantastic Beasts 3 should spend more time developing those relationships, injecting some much needed “fun” into the franchise. For the record, I loved Johnny Depp as Grindelwald, and thought his performance as the dark wizard was the best part of the film. Personal controversy aside, he’s a great actor and is one of many in a truly fantastic ensemble.
Warner Bros can make this Fantastic Beasts series work, I really believe that. But they lost their way making The Crimes of Grindelwald. If they focus on more cohesive plot and portray the fun and magic of the film through its lead characters, I’ve no doubt this franchise will be successful. As much as I didn’t enjoy The Crimes of Grindelwald, the ending sure made me excited for what they have in store next. The series has huge potential, and it’ll only take a good next film to get people back on board.
The last instalment made $653m worldwide on a $200m budget (not including marketing), meaning it barely broke even, whilst it was down from the $814m made by Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. In a nutshell, things are not going well for Fantastic Beasts and Warner Bros. In the announcement, Ron Sanders (President, worldwide theatrical distribution and home entertainment) reiterated that the plan is still to make this a 5-film franchise, meaning the creative teams have their work cut out to get audiences back on board with this franchise. Now I actually enjoyed the first Fantastic Beasts, it was fun, magical, and it was a great introduction to Newt Scamander and the rest of the cast. The film got the right balance between bringing you back in the world of Harry Potter, whilst also being its own standalone adventure. And it is this strength where I feel The Crimes of Grindelwald didn’t uphold, and was far too heavy on plot and tying the two series in.
The second instalment felt very complicated with plot, and was a great example of where fan service and tying plot points together can go wrong. As a viewer who enjoys the Harry Potter films, but does not know all the detailed lore from the books, I felt the film was going out of its way to make me feel dumb. There were far too many times where characters pop-up, and story points are revealed which loses you as an audience member, as the film just expects you’ll know the finer details. Most serious Harry Potter fans I knew loved the film, because they understood all the references, but for many others like me it just didn’t work. For these next few film to work, the creative teams really need to sit down and flesh out the storyline in a way which is easy to follow for non-hardcore fans like myself. Having a detailed plot isn’t the problem, but it’s a problem when you rely on plot devices from the source material without explaining it on screen. The important thing to do is tell a great story, and use fan service to enhance the experience, not rely upon it.
Then there are the characters. The first film did a great job of introducing the characters, making you admire them and like them enough to want to see more. But the character development fell flat in The Crimes of Grindelwald. We didn’t get to know the characters further, and didn’t go deeper into Newt’s motivations. This is supposed to be Newt’s series, and the creative team need to make sure they re-establish this. The foursome of Newt, Jacob, Queenie, and Bunty were delightful in the first film, and Fantastic Beasts 3 should spend more time developing those relationships, injecting some much needed “fun” into the franchise. For the record, I loved Johnny Depp as Grindelwald, and thought his performance as the dark wizard was the best part of the film. Personal controversy aside, he’s a great actor and is one of many in a truly fantastic ensemble.
Warner Bros can make this Fantastic Beasts series work, I really believe that. But they lost their way making The Crimes of Grindelwald. If they focus on more cohesive plot and portray the fun and magic of the film through its lead characters, I’ve no doubt this franchise will be successful. As much as I didn’t enjoy The Crimes of Grindelwald, the ending sure made me excited for what they have in store next. The series has huge potential, and it’ll only take a good next film to get people back on board.
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