The Crimes of Grindelwald edges the Wizarding World away from British charm

By Daisy Game, First Year, English

Family trees are tended, and history lessons conducted; but has the Potter-verse finally lost its charm? Following his first hop into Mr Scamander’s suitcase, director David Yates trips through troubled terrain.

What made the Potter films so endearing was the space consistently given to the quietly human moments: giving Ron time to whine-wince-and-bloody-hell over his truly hideous dress robes; giving Harry a minute to hold out his hand and ask a friend to dance.

It’s not that The Crimes of Grindelwald is completely devoid of charm. Eddie Redmayne hits it well and truly out of the park - or quidditch pitch - as Newt Scamander. Peeking out from beneath a ruffle of hair, avoiding eye contact at all costs: Redmayne is as brilliant as ever. The Oscar winner’s chemistry with Katherine Waterston (playing Tina Goldstein) is equally delightful: romance and salamanders feature in the pair’s joyous interaction.

One of the film’s biggest pitfalls, however, is the lack of screen-time Waterston and Redmayne receive alone together. We move from seeing the pair as a tight duo taking on the Big Apple in the first instalment, to having their few one-on-one interactions, this time in Paris, muddied by the growing cast around them. This disappointment is, predictably, the symptom of a much larger problem: over complication.

It’s not that the stories being told, or the characters introduced, aren’t interesting. In fact, they are rather brilliant. Rowling has provided her fans with several really very tasty Easter Eggs. Family trees are tended and history lessons delivered to Granger-style perfection in relation to Rowling’s expansion of the Potter-verse.

The problem is that we could easily spend a whole film gawking, ooo-ing and aaa-ing at just one of the many twists Rowling has spun. Potter fans are an affectionate bunch. We want to love these characters with all the adoration we can muster. But falling head over heels can take time, not much of which is invested in the character development previously so integral to Rowling’s world. Breadth? Certainly. Depth? Not so much.

Yes, the CGI is impressive. Yes, it’s all-go from the moment we’re chucked into Johnny Depp’s cell (the verdict on Depp’s Grindelwald? Limp). But all good things come at a price. London pubs; cobbled alleyways; beer - albeit of the butter variety - and boarding schools: the world of Harry Potter was gloriously English. And yet The Crimes of Grindelwald all feels a bit ‘Hollywood Blockbuster’.

Leaving the cinema, one unimpressed friend sneered that the Avengers had taken over Hogwarts. Brutal - but unjustified? In the first Fantastic Beasts, director David Yates shaped a lovely relationship between the story’s American backdrop and its awkward English hero.

Playing the brazen let’s-go-get-‘em attitude of American Tina Goldstein against the shuffling introversion of Newt allowed the franchise to move away from the Potter-verse we knew, whilst still celebrating the Britishness of Rowling’s original world. It would be cruel to say that we have fully arrived at the blockbuster stage. But it is a little disconcerting to see the Potter films move even one inch towards it. The Peter-Jackson-Hobbit effect is a threat too hideous to even consider.

Perhaps it is unfair to compare Rowling’s latest project with her first. The Fantastic Beasts franchise has never claimed to fully replicate the world we said goodbye to in 2011. And yet, in this instalment more than the last, we seek the comfort of Hogwarts. Teased, as we are, by the swell of the original Potter score; brought directly back to charms class and the Great Hall, we desperately search for what we found there before.

But perhaps the problem doesn’t lie with the film itself. Maybe this is a legitimate case of ‘it’s me not you’. Because these latest films can never give the Potter generation what they really want: to go back to when we were small, and when Hogwarts felt like home.

Featured Image: IMDb / Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald / Warner Bros

How does The Crimes of Grindelwald rank in your favourite Wizarding World films?

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