Fantastic Beasts: 10 Reasons Why The Crimes Of Grindelwald Is A Massive Disappointment

4. It Chooses To Tell Rather Than Show

When it was announced that Rowling would be writing all of the screenplays for the Fantastic Beasts films, it felt like a nice little evolution for her as a writer. Rather than writing books to be turned into films, she was taking out the middle-man and simply writing the films herself.

The first Fantastic Beasts had its share of problems (pacing, too many subplots, hackneyed callbacks to Potter characters) but it was a solid enough film for many to overlook the cons in favor of the pros. Crimes of Grindelwald is anything but a solid film, which makes the fact that Rowling seems to have doubled-down on all of the first film's flaws all the more maddening.

Perhaps worst of all though, is the fact that Rowling predominant role as a novel-writer really gets the best of her work here, because the film opts to tell the audience things way more than it opts to show. There are several key scenes in this film that are just a room full of characters standing completely still and spouting exposition at one another.

It's the equivalent of having a story told to you rather than experiencing it for yourself, and it makes for an incredibly boring and uncompelling film-viewing experience.