Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald Review - 5 Ups & 7 Downs

5. Too. Many. Characters.

Despite the film having little actual narrative meat on its bones, it's nevertheless an extremely cluttered movie, especially as it pertains to its huge roster of characters.

Most of the usual suspects return, of course, alongside a glut of newbies such as Newt's (Eddie Redmayne) former flame Leta Lestrange (Zoë Kravitz), his brother Theseus (Callum Turner), the Maledictus who will eventually become Nagini (Claudia Kim), French-African wizard Yusuf Kama (William Nadylam), and of course, young Dumbledore (Jude Law).

It's a lot to take in, especially as each of these characters has to have their backstory established and given a sufficient payoff.

It doesn't help that Rowling decides to separate many of the key players for large portions of the movie, requiring the canvas to grow increasingly large and sloppily out of control, forcing Yates to constantly cut between disparate plot threads.

The movie would be all the better for losing a few of its ancillary characters and streamlining the focus somewhat. To this end, it's a textbook example of bloated sequel syndrome in full effect.