What The Critics Hated About Fantastic Beasts 2

6. It Doesn't Know What To Aim For

It doesn't take a genius to see that Warner Bros have been very consciously appealing to the Harry Potter fans out there with the marketing for The Crimes of Grindelwald. Not only have Dumbledore and Hogwarts played major parts in the campaign (and far more than they do in the final film, in fact), but there are more tangible links between the sequel and the "mainline" movies than there was with the first Fantastic Beasts movie.

It makes sense, of course, because it dials into one of the most lucrative demographics there's ever been in cinema, with some serious box office spending power. But it comes at a cost.

In the interest of appealing to fans, Rowling has stuffed in references that will mean little to mainstream, uninitiated audiences and in the interest of appealing to those mainstream audience members, she hasn't really gone far enough. The result, according to reviews, is a film that is neither one thing or the other, when choosing one approach would have been better for establishing the film's identiy.