It’s hard to believe this is the third installment of
the “Fantastic Beasts” series and none of them have given us anything remotely
memorable. AMovieGuy said in his review, “They exist, all of them directed by
David Yates, with an all-star cast of actors, set as prequels to the saga of
Harry Potter and I have yet to remember anything about them. This installment-
The Secrets of Dumbledore– might be the best of the three, which is not saying
much, especially since I found this one to be the most disappointing yet.”
There may not have been a lot of anticipation from the first three films, but “The
Secrets of Dumbledore” wastes all of its potential, on a boring story about an
election for the new Minister of Magic, giving a movie that is anything but “Fantastic.”
The plot of this one start where the second one, “The
Crimes of Grindelwald,” had left off, only this time Gellert Grindelwald has
been recast from Johnny Depp with Mads Mikkelsen. The evil wizard is the longtime
friend and once lover of Dumbledore, played by Jude Law with a great beard and
a little seriousness, but now the two have grown apart, what with Grindelwald
wanting to start a war with muggles, seeing them as the enemy. Now it’s up to
Dumbledore’s assembled team, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), his brother Theseus
(Callum Turner), Lally Hicks (former correspondent on “The Daily Show,” Jessica
Williams), and returning muggle Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) to stop Grindelwald
and his team of evil wizards before he rigs the election to become Minister of
Magic. There’s a little magic along the way, a pitstop at Hogwarts in the early
stages as a school, a mythical creature called a Quilin (I guess you can
describe this as a baby Pegasus), and a few want battles. You would think all
of that and two-hours and twenty-two minutes would give us more, but sadly.
One thing we can see the Fantastic Beasts movies have
had more than a fair share of disagreements that don’t help. AMovieGuy noted, “Writer
J.K. Rowling has shown her bigotry to members of the Transgender community,
Johnny Depp was removed after one day of shooting (he still gets paid his
16-million for his contract), and just this past week Ezra Miller was arrested.”
Even if these didn’t happen, “The Secrets of Dumbledore” still fails to be an
adventure. The screenplay, co-written by Rowling and Steve Kloves, collides too
much. There are so many subplots, none of them getting any true attention, one
with Dumbledore’s brother Aberforth (Richard Coyle) and his long-lost bitter
son Credence (Ezra Miller) willing to do anything Grindelwald orders. There’s
Jacob wanting to be with his girlfriend Quennie, played by Alison Sudol. Then
there is the fight to stop Grindelwald enlisting in the election, only for the
outgoing minister to say “even people who murder muggles deserve a chance to be
voted on by the people.” Everything is completely strange and none of it builds
up to anything worthy of the runtime.
There is one actual entertaining scene, where News
must rescue his brother from a prison, which includes a herd of baby lobsters
and a giant scorpion that eats a prisoner as soon as their time is up.
AMovieGuy said, “The set piece reminded me of the Shelob spider scene in The
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, but even with those memories at
hand, it’s still routinely interrupted, where Yates feels the necessity to go
back to other matters of Grindelwald.” It’s that consistent problem of the
direction and actual flow of the story that makes “The Secrets of Dumbledore”
to fail at every moment.
I agree with AMovieGuy when he said, “It’s not that
The Secrets of Dumbledore is the worst movie one could see this year, but for a
large scale production, and a collected cast this charming, it’s the biggest
nothing burger I’ve ever digested.” Katherine Waterston only reprises her
character as a cameo, which may have been a smart choice on her end. Jude Law
plays an elegant younger Dumbledore but is never focused on enough. Maybe the
biggest crime for this crew is that they made Mads Mikkelsen feel like he didn’t
want to be in this. The great actor looks like a villain and barely breaks a
sweat in his performance. I’m really surprised that a franchise with only three
films, with so many successful films, to each have little to no impact. Maybe
that’s the greatest magic spell they put on. AMovieGuy ended his review by saying,
“With a wave of the wand, I hope this is the end of Fantastic Beasts. I guess I
should say, Expelliarmus!”
I’m sorry to say guys, but this one did nothing for
me. This one felt like a romantic flick as opposed to a movie where I wanted to
see more magical creatures and spells. However, I didn’t really get all of
that, and I would not give this a recommendation. I think this one is just
average, and if you want to see it and you have an HBO Max, see it if you want.
If you end up liking it, great, but I don’t see myself going back to this one.
Thank you for joining in on this review. Look out next
month to see what I will review next.
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