Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald 4K Blu-ray Review

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Summary

At the end of the first film, the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) was captured by MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America), with the help of Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne). But, making good on his threat, Grindelwald escaped custody and has set about gathering followers, most unsuspecting of his true agenda: to raise pure-blood wizards up to rule over all non-magical beings.

In an effort to thwart Grindelwald’s plans, Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) enlists 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.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Movie Review

Picking up a few months after the original Fantastic Beasts, we find Newt back in London having to deal with the fallout of the destruction in NYC. Compared to the first Fantastic Beasts film, this one feels more like setup for another film and isn’t as interesting as the original. It isn’t a bad film, but just one that isn’t nearly as interesting as the first.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Technical Review

The Crimes of Grindelwald was shot at 6.5K resolution with ARRI Alexa 65 cameras and given a full 4K digital intermediate, while the disc also features a Dolby Vision layer, so the overall source is as ideal as you can hope for. For the vast majority of the film, it looks just fantastic. There is loads of detail here, with textures on fabrics and skin, and all the beasts looking just great. HDR is used incredibly well with bursts of lightning, magical spells, and a shimmering dragon among the many highlights. There are also lots of shadow details present, with no crush or other flaws. There are a few shots, mostly near the end of the film, that aren’t quite as sharp and detailed, featuring almost a bit of noise in fine details that you might see from some edge enhancement. For the vast majority of the film, the image is almost as good as you can get on 4K disc, and I think everyone will be happy with the results.

The soundtrack is presented in Dolby Atmos and makes good use of the extra channels when needed, but can come up short in terms of dynamic range. Voices are easy to understand, and ambient effects are used reasonably well to create a sense of environment while you are watching. However, there isn’t nearly as much lower-octave bass as you might expect in some scenes and my subwoofer didn’t get the full workout that I was expecting it to. It might be a source issue as maybe they didn’t want that much bass in those scenes, but it just feels like sometimes the soundtrack could have been more explosive than it is.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Special Features

• J.K. Rowling: A World Revealed
• Wizards on Screen, Fans in Real Life
• Distinctly Dumbledore
• Unlocking Scene Secrets: The Return to Hogwarts
• Unlocking Scene Secrets: Newt’s Menagerie
• Unlocking Scene Secrets: Credence, Nagini and the Circus Arcanus
• Unlocking Scene Secrets: Paris and Place Cachée
• Unlocking Scene Secrets: Ministere des Affaires Magiques
• Unlocking Scene Secrets: Grindelwald’s Escape and the Ring of Fire
• Deleted Scenes

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Review System

Sony A1E OLED, Vizio PQ LCD, Panasonic UB820 UltraHD Blu-ray Player, KEF Ci5160RL-THX Fronts, Ci3160RL-THX Center, 2x Ci200RR-THX Surrounds, 4x CI200RR-THX Atmos Speakers, Anthem MRX 1120 Receiver, SVS PB-3000 subwoofer.