Crimes of Grindelwald: Fun Yet Confusing

The second installment of the Fantastic Beasts series is out. This one is called The Crimes of Grindelwald, and I'm not entirely sure of the name's significance. I'm also not sure what exactly happened, and what was accomplished. It was a visually stunning movie with awesome music and epic scenes, which I'm sure will make more sense later, but I think a little more editing and/or explanation could have helped to make this even more of an enjoyable movie.

The movie is also full of fun Easter eggs, as well as some explanations of what happened in the past, some of which ties in with the Harry Potter series. With this is mind, I'm sure many fans would be ecstatic to see this movie. So what was so wrong with this one?

My son pointed out the biggest issue. It was almost as if the writer(s) went out of their way to keep information from the audience. I'm not sure if this was Rowling's idea or some other co-writers, but it doesn't fit the story telling in any of the other Rowling movies. My son notes one scene in which one character had no reason not to tell the other character important information except to not spoil the later surprises for the audience. "Shh ... I can't tell you because some mysterious audience is watching." This was also a major issue for another visually stunning, epic-filled movie that featured Redmayne a couple of years ago, which didn't do so well.

There were a few characters, even some major ones, that existed, but were never explained. I couldn't remember them from the first movie, nor did I understand who they were related to. Most importantly, I didn't understand their incentives or desires, so I had nothing to latch onto. For example, who was that evil looking lady working in the library? You'll know her when you see her. Who was that lady working with Grindelwald near the beginning of the movie? Who was that who helped Grindelwald escape in the beginning, and what exactly happened in that scene?

Also, I think the writers had established that there was a parallel magic world in Paris, but it was confusing as to which scenes were happening in magic land, and which were happening in the real world. And how exactly did the two worlds interact with each other?

And how again was Grindenwald able to get so many followers and why did it take so long for him to escape?

Out of the four of my family who were watching, none of us could figure out what was going on. We tried to piece it all together after the movie, but there were still some questions. I think we figured most of it, but it might take another viewing. The funny thing is, I don't think it would have taken that much editing to make it all work better. I'll most likely continue watching, but it's hard to get very excited about future movies.