Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

I am a big fan of the first Fantastic Beasts movie.  First of all, Eddie Redmayne is delightful as Newt Scamander, the wrangler par excellence of all kinds of unusual and delightful creatures.  The romance between Queenie and Jacob Kowlaski was fresh and just plain cute.  There were a number of interesting subplots and the viewer could actually follow the story line. But I did not enjoy this movie as much as the previous one, and it has to do with the things I love about the first one.  This time around, Newt is not in search of fantastic creatures.  He still has the lovable Bowtruckle with him and the Niffler; and we do see a few visually resplendant creatures, but all too briefly.  Queenie is seen to act in very inexplicable ways; such as putting a love charm on Jacob, who she knew was already in love with her in the first movie!  That whole scene seems forced and unnecessary.  On top of that, Queenie and Jacob have very little to do – they spend alot of time just acting as window dressing.  They are almost lost in the convoluted and rather confusing plot.  Gellert Grindelwald escapes his imprisonment in a rather cliched “bad guy changes places with an apparent good guy” way, and procedes to look for Credence Barbones, who we were introduced to in the first movie.  Grindelwald isn’t the only one searching for him – so is everyone from young Dumbledore (a waste of Jude Law)  to Leta Lestrange to Newt.  Why the interest?  Credence is thought to be a very important person named in an ancient prophecy.  There is a very shocking revelation about Credence at the end of the movie; but it is a murky, disjointed road getting there.  Johnny Depp as Grindelwald is not that menacing. In fact, his performance is sort of bland. The introduction of  Credence’s family tree and how he orginally got to the U.S. makes absolutely no sense.  On the other hand, the visual effects are stupendous.  I especially enjoyed Newt’s ride on a truly fantastic creature, the bucket portkey and any time Jacob Kowalski is on the screen.  I understand that this movie is setting up the next one, but I could have done with a little less set up and a little more heart.  All in all, If you liked the first movie, you will really need to see this one, to be ready for the third  if nothing else.  Let’s just hope that one is a little more interesting!