Wizarding Worldz
The opening scene of “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” is hot. Let’s take a look at the third fantastic beast movie review.
The opening scene of “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” is scorching with its lingering stares, and nostalgic memories of a love that was not to be, and simmering passion.
The elegant setting of an afternoon tea. And it’s much more so because Jude Law and Mads Mikkelsen, the performers opposite one other, are both handsome men who offer a strong screen presence and a subtle sense of emotion to this scene.
After then, everything goes downhill, albeit with a few thrills and a nice diversion along the road.
Simply said, these “Fantastic Beasts” films are bad. They’re very decent, yet they never manage to move or inspire me. In terms of pure fun, this third episode is roughly on pace with the first movie in the series, 2016,’s playful “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” and an improvement over the somber “The Crimes of Grindelwald.”
All of them are vying for the enormous, global, once-in-a-generation “Harry Potter” success, yet with each new installment of this offshoot series, we are reminded of how pointless and subpar they are.
Young wizards can pursue the snitch in a game of Quidditch as they fly above Hogwarts while playing a brief segment of the soaring John Williams theme (a visual that caused my 12-year-old son to exclaim, “Fan service!” during a recent showing).
It’s just one more component in a movie that already has too many characters, a convoluted plot, and insufficient true magic. After directing the final four “Harry Potter” films as well as the previous two “Fantastic Beasts” films, David Yates is back as director.
Steve Kloves, a seasoned “Potter” screenwriter, rejoins J.K. Rowling, the universe’s founder, who wrote the first two scripts alone, in this reality.
The Secrets of Dumbledore feels overcrowded as it lumbers from one narrative to another, possibly even due to all that knowledge.
Keeping all those plates spinning appears to be very difficult, especially in a franchise where the main focus is waving a wand and making things better with a wrist flick.
In spite of all the chaos, this film is fundamentally about election cheating. It truly is! Therefore, you might want to go elsewhere if you attend fantasy extravaganzas like these to escape from the problems of reality.
Related article: Who’s Playing Grindelwald In Fantastic Beasts 3
The titular creatures can, indeed, be cute. Pickett, a stick bug friend of Newt Scamander, is a little guy that is nice and incredibly resourceful. Teddy the pickpocket platypus never fails to make people smile. A group of monsters that resemble scorpions does a fantastically bizarre dance routine during one of the few scenes that manage to strike a balance between humor and fear.
The activities of a qilin, a rare, deer-like animal (pronounced chillin, which this film is not for a second), who possesses exceptional psychic insight, are what the entire movie depends on.
However, “The Secrets of Dumbledore” includes more serious themes that it painfully tries to convey while alternating between large-scale action sequences and humorous physical comedy.
The magizoologist played by Eddie Redmayne, Newt Scamander, who has served as our entry point into this wizarding universe that is roughly 70 years older than the Potterverse, isn’t even the main character in this story. He serves as a clumsy and restless gear in the machinery of Law’s youthful Albus Dumbledore, who concocts plans while swaddled in a variety of vests and scarves.
Because Grindelwald has some dubious notions about how to deal with Muggles—namely, that they should be completely eradicated—disastrous Dumbledore’s romance with the rising villain Gellert Grindelwald (Mikkelsen, filling in for a troubled Johnny Depp) eventually erupts.
Albus says, “With or without you, I’ll burn down their universe,” during the otherwise delightful tea. Given the backdrop of Berlin in the 1930s, the prejudice of such purebloods—a concept that first appeared in “The Crimes of Grindelwald”—becomes more overt here.
Now, Dumbledore must stop him with the assistance of Newt, Newt’s brother Theseus (Callum Turner), Newt’s assistant Bunty (Victoria Yeates), Newt’s friend Jacob, a Muggle baker (Dan Fogler, who is once again a vital source of kindness and comic relief).
The stoic and strong Hogwarts professor Lally Hicks (Jessica Williams, a welcome addition). Stuart Craig and Neil Lamont’s constantly outstanding production design is mostly seen in the stylish, art deco train where they lay out their strategy and the Lower East Side street where Jacob’s bakery is located.
But there’s no sign of Katherine Waterston’s Tina Goldstein, ostensibly Newt’s love; her eventual appearance on film is so fleeting, that she might not have bothered visiting the craft service table. Dumbledore also hires Yusuf Kama (William Nadylam), Leta Lestrange’s half-brother, to infiltrate Grindelwald’s band of young, finely dressed fascists. His character, like so many others in the film, feels underdeveloped, but he is at the core of one of the film’s most sad scenes.
Ezra Miller appears as Grindelwald’s servant Credence Barebone, whose true identity is ostensibly one of Dumbledore’s secrets. (Another is… Dumbledore is gay? Which was alluded to in the second film and will remain a mystery to Chinese audiences watching this picture.)
Even in a film that lasts well over two hours, real stakes remain elusive. Miller gives the character the necessary creepy feel, but his presence is an unwanted distraction, considering allegations of his recent terrible off-screen behavior.
It’s simply another issue for this boring, Covid-delayed series, which allegedly has two more complete features in the pipeline. Those will require a tremendous deal of powerful magic to pull off successfully.