Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

One of the disappointments of 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was that it poured so many resources into crafting those fantastic beasts that crafting a compelling story seemed like a task on the to-do list that never got crossed off. Sequel The Crimes of Grindelwald – the second in a proposed five-film series set roughly 60 years before the birth of a certain boy wizard named Harry Potter – does an about-face, backgrounding the magical creatures and crosshatching a half-dozen (at least!) engrossing plots and character pairings. It’s an improvement in almost every way.

Eddie Redmayne – nominally the lead, but really more a calming buoy in a very busy movie – returns as the magizoologist/righteous nerd Newt Scamander, who is tender with the creatures in his care but pretty hopeless when it comes to talking to his crush, no-nonsense American auror Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston). Tina’s sister, the sweet, guileless Queenie (Alison Sudol), is still head over heels for good-hearted baker Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), who can’t do magic. In the 1920s wizarding community, that kind of love affair between a witch and a no-maj is verboten, lending them a star-crossed quality.

The excellent cast includes Zoë Kravitz as Leta Lestrange, stuck between her first love and her new fiancé; Claudia Kim as Nagini, a maledictus doomed to eventually transform full-time into a snake, something that’s exploited in the wizard-world freakshow circus where she bonds with another tortured soul; and Jude Law, as an impish young Professor Dumbledore, who recruits Newt to track down Grindelwald because Albus can’t, or won’t, move against the once-cherished man he sees in the Mirror of Erised.

Does it matter if these names don’t ring a bell for you? Not exactly – the film still works as its own contained universe. One thing that will fly right over the heads of kiddos are the implied parallels to despots. Indeed, the film’s best action sequence isn’t the hurly-burly stuff, all digital effects overload. It’s Grindelwald – aka beta Voldemort, played by Johnny Depp – riling up his base without raising his voice, convincing the elite they are in fact the oppressed and encouraging their worst tendencies to nativism. It’s the opening salvo in a battle for wizards’ hearts and minds, one that will presumably dominate the rest of the series. On the strength of this sequel, count this Muggle’s heart and mind all in.

FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD ( 3 ½ )• Directed by David Yates • Starring Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol • Rated PG-13 • 134 min. • At Century Cinemas, Century Marina, Maya Cinemas, Northridge Cinemas, Lighthouse Cinemas