Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes of Grindelwald is finally here two years after its predecessor. This film has made great progress compared with the previous "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", both in terms of the amount of information in the content and the complex portrayal of characters.
From the very beginning, this movie gave up the "Harry Potter"-like simply telling the adventure story from the perspective of the protagonist for a period of time. Instead, it was completed in the first hour with multi-line narrative and cross-editing. The overall structure of the story. At the heart of the story, Credence is the engine that drives all the narrative lines. In the previous work, his background and life experience were revealed, and his silent identity made him a potential seed, quietly planted in the entire "Fantastic Beasts" series - not only has amazing destructive power, but also has both with a mysterious identity.
And everyone in Fantastic Beasts 2 is helping Credence find his own identity, except the Dark Lord Grindelwald. At this point, Craig Providence became Hitchcock script that a " MacGuffin " Newt looking for him, looking for his Ministry, Grindelwald need him ??? when Craig Providence final in France When meeting with people from all walks of life, the gunpowder primer also burned to the end, and the final battle was about to break out.
Of course, the title of the film is "Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes of Grindelwald", and it is obvious that Grindelwald's role in the film may be more important than the protagonist Newt. The fact is also true, Newt's role in the whole film is only Dumbledore's "eye line" to participate in the whole event, and does not play an important leading role in the development of the storyline. But Grindelwald is different, from the creepy and cold glimpse at the end of the last movie, to Dumbledore's line "I can't fight Grindelwald" in the trailer, to the aerial escape at the beginning of the film , to the speech of gathering supporters in the French cemetery and the extremely destructive magic flame, to the shocking secret revealed by Grindelwald at the end. In this film, Grindelwald has become the "protagonist" both in topic and in the whole story.
Looking back, let's take a look at the second half of the final film - Grindelwald's "speech", which is very similar in form to Hitler, the commander of Nazi Germany, using eloquent and inflammatory language to promote Their own viewpoints form their own moral commanding heights, highlight their dominant position of national nature, and realize the suppression of other countries by force and the domination of their own strata.
However, there is an essential difference between Grindelwald and Voldemort. Voldemort is a standard "racist". He has arrogance and prejudice against "pure blood", and he hates Muggles and Mudbloods and resorts to violence and revenge. He was able to gather Death Eaters to follow his lead, provided he tapped into people's greed for "power" and collective identification with "caste purity and superiority" (a small number of wizards). Therefore, the story of "Harry Potter" is an inherent subversion of the power structure, which is a bottom-up resistance.
As for Grindelwald, he regarded his own group (all wizards) as a vulnerable group. In the film, he mentioned "prophecy" in his speech - a prediction of modern warfare, the power of hot weapons and even tank cannons Let him feel the danger in the wizarding world. From Rowling's "History of Magic in North America" written in Pottermore, it is not difficult to see the changes from the beginning of magic to the present generation, wizards are persecuted by Muggles all the time, "The Salem Witch Trials Rowling added real stories from history, such as "The Case", into the framework of her own magical worldview. So in Grindelwald's era, the main antagonistic contradiction became the rift between wizards and Muggles. He advocated provoking a war between wizards and Muggles, trying to protect their own population by allowing "vulnerable groups" such as wizards to gain a voice in the world.
From this point of view, Grindelwald's purpose of declaring war has a deeper political significance. What he defends is the whole group, and what Voldemort does is just defend his own private power. This is why, in the beginning, Grindelwald and Dumbledore, who seem to have completely opposite worldviews, were able to have a relationship that "beyond brotherhood". But since what Grindelwald wanted to do was to resort to "violence" and not a benign struggle, this was also one of the reasons why Dumbledore broke with Grindelwald. Interestingly, Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald in 1945, but did not kill Grindelwald. In contrast to the ending of Harry and Voldemort's showdown, Rowling actually had her own "judgment criteria" for the villain.
Therefore, it is not wrong to say that Grindelwald's characters are both good and evil. At the end of "Fantastic Beasts 2", Queenie finally followed Grindelwald, which also presents the ordinary wizard in this era from another perspective. Anxiety, thus breaking the presumption that those who follow Grindelwald must be "evil" dark wizards. If we integrate the real background of the times into the film, it is not difficult to see that Grindelwald's struggle can be regarded as a contemporary "affirmative action" in a sense. If I have to give an example, the "me too" movement, which represents "feminism", happens to be the best finger shoot.
Going back to the source to explore the starting point of Grindelwald's "declaration of war" against Muggles, his own ambiguity gradually revealed. In "Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes of Grindelwald", there is also a character that is exceptionally brilliant, that is, Newt's first love at Hogwarts, his brother's wife, Leta Lestrange (very weird triangle).
When you see "Lestrange", you must think of Bellatrix Lestrange, Voldemort's admirer who made a deep impression in "Harry Potter". Yes, Rita and Bellatrix are relatives. Although in terms of skin color, it is very likely that Leta and Bella are not directly related, and the identities and personality characteristics of the two are quite different.
Leta Lestrange, the Auror of the British Ministry of Magic; Bellatrix Lestrange, the inexorable Death Eater. The confrontation in identities makes them completely unable to find a single feature in common except their surnames. Rita was born into a clan family in Lestrange, but her mother was a black woman who was kidnapped by old Lestrange. As soon as Rita was born, her mother died in childbirth. As a child born without the protection of her mother, her living situation can be regarded as very bad.
The old Lestrange soon found a second wife and gave birth to a boy. With the birth of her younger brother, Rita eventually lost her favor. In retaliation, she unwrapped her infant brother in an accident. And this fake brother is the most crucial person in the "Fantastic Beasts" series - Credence.
Rita was unhappy in the family, and she was as unwelcome as she came to Hogwarts. Whether facing Professor Dumbledore or her Slytherin classmates at the same level, she felt lonely, lonely and excluded. And it is precisely because of these characteristics that she came together with Newt, who was not as gregarious as before. Although in the end, the two did not get married, but Newt's brother Theseus Scamander married Leta.
Rita's entire life experience has been written in a few strokes, and it seems that we have witnessed another character with tragic significance, and of course the ending is the same. However, in Fantastic Beasts 2, Rita's character contains enough information to support the character arc that this character glows throughout the film.
From the brilliance when I first saw Newt at the Ministry of Magic, to the tit-for-tat confrontation with Dumbledore when he returned to Hogwarts Castle, to the sadness when he recalled old things, and finally to protect Newt and others Sacrifice in confrontation. All these fragmented plots cover all the key plot points of the entire film. In the process of excavating the character history of Rita Lestrange, the shaping of the character was completed. As only appearing in one movie, and in the process of conveying the amount of information, to build up the personal image of the character itself, and even to achieve the empathy effect that must be achieved at the end of the sacrifice, this role should be called a Benchmarks for creating characters in the film.
"Fantastic Beasts 2: The Crimes of Grindelwald" did not focus on the protagonist Newt in terms of characterization, but instead made Grindelwald and Rita's performance in the film more brilliant. The information for building a "magic worldview" also came from these two. Undoubtedly, from the point of view of fans, this film is an extended version of DLC that is refreshing and explosive throughout the whole process, adding too much effective information. For ordinary fans, the multi-line narrative in the previous hour was in the editing process. The dullness and confusion, as well as the numerous characters and the huge amount of information, make the viewing process much more difficult.
Although the overall special effects, motion design and stage beauty of the film still maintain this high-quality production level, in all fairness, there are really big problems with photography and editing. Some of the hand-held shots and the close-ups of characters used in the dialogue, as well as the uneven panning, are really uncomfortable.
On the whole, Rowling and David Yates mainly hope that this film will pave the way for the next story. At the end of the film, except for Newt, the rest of the people have experienced the departure and loss of their loved ones, so the "righteous side" of this film fell into the darkest moment and was thrown into a desperate situation. How to get this city back in the next film is still Let's wait and see.
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