In some ways, 'Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald (2018)' is more cohesive - or, at least, consistent - than its predecessor, especially when it comes to tone. The issue is that it's just more consistently dull, both in terms of visuals (including dark, muddy cinematography and difficult-to-watch, CG-based action-scenes) and story. It's almost exactly as structurally unsound, to boot, with the entire affair focusing on the filler-feeling side-plot of the first without much thought given to the more successful, actual 'fantastic beast'-based stuff that this series is now, somewhat erroneously, forever named upon. It seems like a feature-length 'B story' with only mere moments of entertainment, a few fleeing glimpses of interesting character interactions and surprisingly dark back-stories, and a whole heap of fan-service filled, sequel-bait set-up that makes the entire affair feel, ultimately, entirely pointless. It's just a simple, essentially skippable stepping stone in a slow-paced and, in itself, inconsequential story that we already know the outcome of. It seems that the real magic is the way that it somehow leaves you with the bitter taste of disappointment even though you didn't expect it to be any good in the first place. 4/10