Quick review: 4.99 stars,

Don’t take the kiddies to this one folks. I mean, it’s clean, but it’s a little intense. Significantly less magical creatures fun and a lot more interpersonal drama and political intrigue. Also death, death everywhere. So not a kids movie. BUT SO GOOD. Take a friend or your fifteen year old and go see.

Minimal spoilers as I want to let the movie do it’s thing.

So Grindlewald is wizard Hitler. You know, there will always be a place for the beasts of burden that are muggles. We should look forward to our new wizardly overlords. *sarcasm* So if you want to open a discussion about how dictators come to power, maybe discuss why some of what Gindlewald is saying is so persuasive and how we need to train ourselves to set off red flags when we hear that sort of thing regardless of its source.

But Jonny Depp will never be Grindlewald. I mean he does a fine acting job and he wears the costumes well and he’s really good with disrespecting people’s personal space as villains are want to do. He’s just not the guy. But i guess we’ll keep him since he’s here and not screwing anything up.

The reveals are paced in such a way that you know their coming, but you love them when they do anyway. So I’ll let the movie take care of those. As with the first, the visuals are stunning.

But this movie is dark. And my understanding is that there was darker stuff in the script that was taken out early on. I mean baby murder is pretty dark, we get some of that in the first ten minutes. Murder on the whole is a dark topic and there’s plenty of that in the first five minutes or so. And it doesn’t stop.

There’s plenty of cool, magical creature stuff and a moment of righteous victory for the kniffler. And I loved 90% of every minute. There were just a few places where the drama of it all dragged a bit and I think if there had been a directorial eye on keeping it tight rather than dramatic we could have trimmed a good ten minutes of intense stares and pregnant silences that would not have been missed. As it was I felt them toward the end when I realized I had been sitting too long and was becoming uncomfortable.

But I wouldn’t have left that theater for the most urgent of potty breaks or anything short of a vomiting child because it was just that good. I mean, I wanna punch Queenie and hug Jacob. I want to simultaneously smack Newt and Tina upside the head for not talking to each other. But all that just means I am super involved with the characters, so bravo?

Anyway go see it. You know you want to, or at the very least you want something to do with the relatives after the pumpkin pie.

Until next time, enjoy the show.