Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
Warner Bros. | Release Date: November 16, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 48 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
23
Negative:
8
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Total FilmJames MottramNov 8, 2018
Rowling’s universe just got bigger and more complex, but Yates never forgets to sprinkle stardust on top. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesNov 15, 2018
On the strength of this sequel – a dense yet deft return to the high standards Yates set with the Potter films – count this Muggle’s heart and mind all in. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterCaryn JamesNov 8, 2018
The sequel has better and at times galvanizing special effects, a darker tone and a high-stakes battle between good and evil. Best of all, its characters are more vibrantly drawn, and tangled in relationships that range from delightful to lethal. Read full review
80
IGNDavid GriffinNov 8, 2018
Another strong entry in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World saga. Rowling has improved upon the first Fantastic Beasts film by fleshing out her characters in a way that’s engaging, though not everybody receives as much attention. Both Johnny Depp and Eddie Redmayne are - forgive the pun - fantastic in their perspective roles. Read full review
78
Film Journal InternationalFrank LoveceNov 15, 2018
This exquisitely mounted sequel to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) skims past any narrative shortcomings through the complete and convincing totality of the wizarding world it creates, drawing you into another reality with perhaps more verisimilitude than any film in the Harry Potter canon. Read full review
78
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiNov 8, 2018
The Crimes of Grindelwald probably had enough plot to drive a four-hour mini-series, but even so, what we get is often absorbing and grand. The sense that this magical world is actually, well, fantastic is finally back in the series. Read full review
76
The VergeTasha RobinsonNov 8, 2018
For the serious fans who this series is meant for, the promise of at least six more hours of Fantastic Beasts action likely means a lot more thrilling beasts, barriers, and beats to explore. Everyone else may find that all the little personal bits of character business and frantic complications aren’t much of a substitute for a clear and compelling plot with a single meaningful protagonist. Read full review
75
The PlaylistCharles BarfieldNov 14, 2018
While the first film was jarring and clumsy, the sequel finds itself settling into a groove; it’s darker, weirder, more relevant and, yes, way more magical. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiNov 8, 2018
Grindelwald gives us a proper villain and a purpose for this series of — gulp — five eventual movies. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanNov 8, 2018
Takes a turn for the dark side that will satisfy the franchise’s adult fans even more. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittNov 8, 2018
Old-school Potterheads will rejoice, though fans of the charmingly quirky group of heroes from the first “Beasts” may lament their do-gooders getting lost in a growing magical landscape. Read full review
70
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganNov 8, 2018
There’s real magic here, and nothing fake about the emotions which guide it. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattNov 11, 2018
There might not be a more gorgeous-looking movie this year than Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 16, 2018
Despite being light in the story department, The Crimes of Grindelwald offers plenty of small pleasures and tightens up the linkage between this series and Harry Potter. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChris BarsantiNov 15, 2018
The Crimes of Grindelwald gets more comedic and emotional mileage out of Newt’s interactions with his various creatures, particularly the adorable platypus-like one with a nose for gold, than most of its human-centered scenes. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJake CoyleNov 13, 2018
The Crimes of Grindelwald is often dazzling, occasionally wondrous and always atmospheric. But is also a bit of a mess. Even magic bags can be overweight. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 12, 2018
While the performances are solid and we do get a few touching moments, the film sinks under the weight of too many intersecting storylines and too many loud and fiery and surprisingly mediocre action sequences. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeNov 29, 2018
While the action set pieces and effects are dizzyingly immersive, the storytelling is fussy and somehow uncompelling. Read full review
60
CineVueNick HiltonNov 19, 2018
A mess then, but a mess that deserves to be indulged. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelNov 15, 2018
While it is a perfectly serviceable placeholder in the larger series, its contributions to the Potterverse are disappointingly minor. Read full review
60
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 15, 2018
At 134 minutes, Grindelwald can feel like an overload of homework on which we’ll we tested later. Fine for Pottermores, but a trial for us Muggles. Read full review
60
EmpireIan FreerNov 8, 2018
An enjoyable foray into JK Rowling’s imagination, bolstered by a more appealing Eddie Redmayne, but you can’t help feel The Crimes Of Grindelwald is still treading water until future chapters. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawNov 8, 2018
JK Rowling’s creative imagination is as fertile as ever, and newcomers Law and Johnny Depp impress, but the second film in the series is bogged down by franchise detail. Read full review
60
Time OutOlly RichardsNov 8, 2018
The second part in the ‘Harry Potter’ spin-off provides twists and glorious visuals, but has too much plot to truly soar. These beasts are overburdened. Read full review
58
IndieWireKate ErblandNov 8, 2018
As impressive as the final showdown is (it’s easily one of the most impressive setpieces in this fledgling franchise) and as shocking as the film’s closing revelations are (yes, they really are), this magic needs a spell of its own. Read full review
51
Paste MagazineMichael BurginNov 19, 2018
Like a sack of shiny baubles, there may be plenty of sparkle, but the story being pieced together from the jumble is told with all the narrative flair—and nearly equal amounts of exposition—of a Wikipedia entry. Read full review
50
Original-CinJim SlotekNov 16, 2018
Grindelwald is a movie that seems to want to recreate the Potter universe and does it in the most plodding way, crowding it with characters and plot points, many of which go nowhere. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldNov 16, 2018
While it’s often great fun to look at, “Crimes of Grindelwald” fails at what should be Rowling’s great strength: storytelling. Three more to go, and an infusion of magic is desperately needed. Read full review
50
ObserverOliver JonesNov 15, 2018
While the presence of both Law and Depp is a little distracting — the film could also be called "The Proxy War of the Long in the Tooth Former Hotties" — the acting is generally strong. But here the film’s best assets are also criminally underused. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireNov 15, 2018
A big-budget, holiday-timed blockbuster about…racism, which may not exactly be the joyful, escapist entertainment families are looking for this time of year. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubNov 14, 2018
By the time we reach the unsatisfying cliffhanger ending, there’s little to look forward to. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisNov 8, 2018
It’s an embarrassment of riches, and it’s suffocating. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Nov 8, 2018
Harry Potter, for all his nice-kid incorruptibility, looks downright four-dimensional compared to Redmayne’s milquetoast Newt—an impossibly twee soul with few discernible flaws or even particularly interesting characteristics. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 8, 2018
It took J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter-adjacent franchise exactly one film for the shrugs to set in, even with all those fine actors up there amid expensive digital blue flames. Read full review
50
VarietyAndrew BarkerNov 8, 2018
Most of the surface pleasures of filmic Potterdom (the chiaroscuro tones, the overqualified character actors, the superb costuming, James Newton Howard’s warmly enveloping score) have survived intact, but real magic is in short supply. Read full review
42
ConsequenceAllison ShoemakerNov 13, 2018
Good actors can’t make up for narrative inconsistency. Beasts can’t erase the frustration of seeing characters you love behave in ways that make no sense. One can forgive retconning backstory where it doesn’t belong if it feels true to the fictional world you love. That doesn’t happen here. Read full review
40
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoNov 16, 2018
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is two-plus overstuffed hours worth of too many characters fighting for screen time that no enchantment can salvage. Read full review
40
UproxxMike RyanNov 12, 2018
Most of the film involves meeting yet another new character, then being told yet another long story about his or her mysterious past. At times, The Crimes of Grindelwald feels more like some sort of Harry Potter encyclopedia or appendices than it does an actual movie. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangNov 8, 2018
The Crimes of Grindelwald is somehow both hectic and leaden, a thing of exhausting, pummeling mediocrity. It offers up dazzling feats of sorcery and realms of wonderment (early 20th-century London and Paris among them) and manages to conjure the very opposite of magic. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinNov 8, 2018
Telling an audience this stuff is important is one thing: making them actually feel that it is is the magical part, and Grindelwald bungles the trick. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreNov 14, 2018
I’m not a huge fan of this series, but this has to be the worst of the lot, more agonizing to sit through than the page-by-page “true to the book” bores by Chris Columbus, duller than the weakest of the artless Yates pictures. Read full review
35
The AtlanticDavid SimsNov 13, 2018
This is a film that exists primarily to answer questions nobody would have ever thought to ask about a series of books that already told a very complete story. Read full review
33
The Film StageVikram MurthiNov 16, 2018
It’s sad that Fantastic Beasts pulls off what I assumed was impossible: It turned an imaginative fantasy world into dreary wallpaper. Read full review
30
Vanity FairRichard LawsonDec 16, 2018
Scattered, confusing, and haunted by past grandeur, Crimes of Grindelwald perhaps marks the landmark moment when, alas, the magic finally flickers out. Read full review
30
ScreenCrushMatt SingerNov 16, 2018
The first Fantastic Beasts was a bit of a mess. The second one is actively bad. The longer this spinoff franchise goes on, the more damage it does to the legacy of the Harry Potter series — which knew not to overstay its welcome. Fantastic Beasts 2 has plenty of spells, wands, and wizards — and absolutely no magic whatsoever. Read full review
30
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriNov 15, 2018
It’s enough to make me wonder if this series might still have a few decent tricks left up its sleeve. We’ll see. This movie’s a bust, but I’ll let myself remain hopeful. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzNov 15, 2018
The entire endeavour is so crass, sloppy, and infuriating (especially the “twist” ending, although the film contains no real ending at all) that it treads close to zero-star, brand-killing territory. But then Jude Law pops up all-too-briefly as a younger, sexier version of Albus Dumbledore, and everything seems mostly right with the Potter-verse. But the magic, it’s fleeting. Read full review
20
SlateDan KoisNov 15, 2018
Congratulations to Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald for being the first flat-out terrible product of the Harry Potter expanded universe. The first two movies were not good movies, but no matter how sludgy and overlong Chris Columbus made them, they were salvaged by the truly magical origin stories they told. Read full review
More From This Movie

52 Critic Reviews

5.7 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 72 The Sheep Detectives
5 68 Crime 101
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL