I swill start off by saying it took us two nights to get through the movie. After what felt like an eternity the first go around, we realized we still had fifty minutes left and were not confident we were going to be able to stay awake to finish it off (and let’s just say the plot was not compelling enough an argument). Starting off with one positive, there are some really great visuals. The costume design is strong and blends allusions to historic styles with witchy elements that is effective. Also, the magic often looks great as well (at least when it looks magical and not just mechanical). However, this is all just visuals, everything below that is confusing and vapid.

A major problem with the movie is that the cental plot focusing on Credence’s origin story is not overly compelling and we are just told through monologues that it is of the upmost importance that he is not united with Grindelwald. In the meantime, the movie burns through characters in service of plot twists that are as confusing as they are unearned. In many cases, the plot twist follows just after we get some clarification about what the heck is actually going on. The result is that it all just feels meaningless, the twist only matters if we felt some clear expectation about what was going to happen, and the movie never gives us that grounding.

There is also so little of a look into what is really compelling about Grindelwald vision. We have the allusion to World War II that feels slightly compelling in the moment, but does not explained what pulled so many wizards to the meeting in the first place. Credence’s pull was very personal and just about his origin. The only other character we get insight into is Queenie, and it is unclear if she was brainwashed or if she really believes in Grindelwald’s vision as the only path to happiness with Jacob. But Queenie’s story again does little to explain the rest of the mob, as her’s is about more free relations between wizards and muggles, and it sure seems like the rest of the mob wants a more clear pecking order and different place for muggles in society.

I am thankful there is only one more movie in the series to call it done…