Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

Most people think so. 77% of audiences gave it a thumbs up, by Google's archived audience score. Critics scored it lower at 44%, but audiences disagreed.

Gellert Grindelwald has escaped imprisonment and has begun gathering followers to his cause—elevating wizards above all non-magical beings. The only one capable of putting a stop to him is the wizard he once called his closest friend, Albus Dumbledore. However, Dumbledore will need to seek help from the wizard who had thwarted Grindelwald once before, his former student Newt Scamander, who agrees to help, unaware of the dangers that lie ahead. Lines are drawn as love and loyalty are tested, even among the truest friends and family, in an increasingly divided wizarding world. Wikipedia ↗

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a 2018 fantasy film directed by David Yates, the second installment in the Fantastic Beasts series set in J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World. The film follows Newt Scamander as he is recruited by a young Albus Dumbledore, played by Jude Law, to track down the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, played by Johnny Depp, who has escaped custody and is building a following among wizards who share his vision of pure-blood supremacy.

The story expands to 1927 Paris, where multiple characters pursue intertwining agendas involving Credence Barebone's mysterious identity and Grindelwald's persuasive vision of preventing World War II through magical domination. The Crimes of Grindelwald was the most critically divisive entry in the Wizarding World franchise, with reviewers finding the plot overstuffed with mythology, the character motivations unclear, and a controversial late-film twist about Credence's lineage confusing rather than illuminating. Jude Law's charismatic portrayal of the younger Dumbledore was widely praised as the film's strongest new element.

The film earned $654 million worldwide, a significant decline from the original's $814 million, raising questions about the franchise's trajectory. The film's opening sequence, depicting Grindelwald's elaborate escape from magical custody, was praised as one of the most visually spectacular scenes in the Wizarding World.