“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”, the newest film to be released within the Harry Potter universe, is the highly-anticipated sequel to the fan-praised Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and continues the story of Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and his loyal group in their efforts to take down the evil Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp). With a star-studded cast and an impressive first film, “The Crimes of Grindelwald” had many excited for its release. Sadly, the film does not live up to its expectations, disappointing both fans and critics alike.

While the movie has a lot of action and excitement, its plot quickly becomes difficult to follow due to it having multiple fast-paced storylines and too many characters to keep up with. Since there are so many new characters introduced, there is a huge lack of character development amongst both the original protagonists and the newbies, making it hard for the audience to connect with the heroes on screen. It felt as if the movie-makers were trying to cram too much information and plotlines into a two-hour time period, which led to several plot holes and inconsistencies.

Although the movie itself is poorly made, many of the performances of the protagonists are bright spots, and actually make it bearable to watch. Redmayne and Jude Law (Albus Dumbledore) keep the film entertaining, which is why is it such a shame that their screen time felt so limited. On the villain side, however, Depp was clearly a poor casting choice, as he gave a bleak performance that was incredibly unconvincing and sometimes cringeworthy. His performance made the film far less enjoyable, and gave the audience a boring, one-dimensional villain.

Overall, “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” is a poor continuation of the series, and will leave Harry Potter fans everywhere disappointed.