Fantastic Beasts - The Crimes of Grindelwald (4K Blu-ray) (2018) |
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Fantastic Beasts - The Crimes of Grindelwald (4K Blu-ray) (2018) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Fantasy |
Featurette-Making Of-Lots Deleted Scenes |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2018 | ||
| Running Time | 133:49 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper |
No/No Dual Disc Set |
Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Ads Then Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | David Yates |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Roadshow Home Entertainment |
Starring |
Johnny Depp Eddie Redmayne Katherine Waterston Jude Law |
| Case | Standard Blu-ray | ||
| RPI | $39.95 | Music | James Newton Howard |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Atmos 7.1 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Catalan Dolby Digital 5.1 |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.40:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 2160p | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 2.40:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English for the Hearing Impaired Spanish Danish Finnish Norwegian Portuguese Swedish |
Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Back in 2017, I reviewed the Blu-ray release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them which took us back 70 years before the Harry Potter stories to the 1920s. This film Fantastic Beasts - The Crimes of Grindelwald follows on directly from the first. There are plans for 3 more sequels to this film, which could be good as long as the quality comes back towards the first film, as this second one is a bit disappointing. Not terrible, but not up to the first film either. The film was written for the screen by J K Rowling, author of all the novels but now just her second time writing directly for the screen. This film is the least successful of the franchise so far as it 'only' took $650 million at the global box office. The film was directed by David Yates, now his sixth film in the franchise and he is also slated to direct all the sequels.
In this second film, our hero from the first film, wizard Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) is called upon by the Ministry to help track down Credence (Ezra Miller) who escaped after the showdown at the end of the first film. They offer him a permit to travel internationally in exchange. Powerful wizard Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) has escaped from his prison after they try to transfer him. Newt refuses to work for the Ministry but is soon approached by Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) to help do the same thing. As he is considering his next step Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) and Queenie (Alison Sudol) turn up to tell him they are engaged. Grindelwald meanwhile is also trying to find Credence as he believes he is key to his plans to control the world with pure blood wizards.Tina ( Katherine Waterston) is also in Paris investigating. Many other characters both new and from the first film also get involved in the chase including Ministry investigator, Grimmson (Ingvar Eggert Sigurdson), Leta Lestrange (Zoe Kravitz) who is married to Newt's brother, Theseus (Callum Turner) also a Ministry operative, Nagini, a Maledictus who turns into a giant snake (who many will remember from the Harry Potter films), Yusuf Karma, a mysterious Magician and many more. With all this going on around him, can Grindelwald get to Credence first of will Newt prevent him? Credence, on the other hand, is just trying to find out who he really is. What will happen in the end and will the audience be able to work out what is going on throughout?
Let's start with the positives. Production quality wise this film is excellent with great sets, props, special effects, action sequences, costumes and a marvelous score by James Newton Howard. The cinematography by Phillippe Rouselot is also excellent producing a visually stunning film produced in native 4K after being shot at a higher resolution. There are some wonderful action sequences like the opening scene.The cast do a good job in their various scenes with the addition of Jude Law as the young Albus Dumbledore being an excellent choice. I also like the addition of the Bunty (Victoria Yeates) character, although it felt like more could have been done with her (maybe next time). Now on to the not so positive...what the hell is going on in this film?? The narrative is very confused with mostly seemingly random scenes and characters being thrown together. There are too many characters involved and too many subplots going on, making it very challenging for the audience to really know what is going on. In the end you just sort of give up and watch the splendour unfold. The ending sort of brings it all together but this film really suffers for difficult second film syndrome where seemingly most of it will not be explained fully until later in the planned series. This film won two awards but unfortunately both were for 'Most Disappointing film'! Fans of the Wizarding World, as it now seems to be called, will certainly want to see it as there are significant reveals that link back to things in Harry Potter. Unfortunately, as a film in its own right, it doesn't stand up to the first film. Hopefully the series will improve as it continues as the box office take will ensure more films are made and the world of these films is certainly worth exploring.
On the Beasts side there are some great new creatures included such as the cat/dragon the zouwu, the fantastic kelpie (not a dog but a sea dragon made of kelp) and for those who loved the niffler from the first film, baby nifflers amongst many more.
Recommended for fans of J K Rowling and those who plan on seeing the whole series.
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The menu features music.
This is a featurette focused on the writing which Rowling explains is a complex plot but she believes necessary to tell the story. In additional to Rowling herself, others such as the director and producer talk about Rowling and her writing and collaborative approach. She also discusses the themes such as that the heroes are flawed and therefore more relatable. Worth watching.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
This film is available in the US in the same format except for some minor differences in foreign language soundtracks and that it includes Digital access to an extended version. I am not convinced that it would be that different to the scenes included in the deleted scenes. Buy local but technically the Region A is the best version.
The video quality is stunning.
The audio quality is excellent.
The extras are plentiful.| Video | |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Sony UBP-X700 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player, using HDMI output |
| Display | LG OLEDC8PTA 55”. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 2160p. |
| Audio Decoder | Built into amplifier. Calibrated with Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
| Amplification | Marantz SR5012 |
| Speakers | Monitor Audio Bronze 2 (Front), Bronze Centre & Bronze FX (Rears) + Sony SAW2500M Subwoofer |