Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
2018
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Apr 15, 2022 · Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore avoids some of the pitfalls that plagued its predecessor, but lacks much of the magic that drew audiences into the wizarding world many...
- (248)
- David Yates
- PG-13
- Eddie Redmayne
Apr 14, 2022 · Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. Christy Lemire April 14, 2022. Tweet. Now streaming on: Powered by JustWatch. The lingering glances, the wistful remembrances of a love that could not be, the simmering passion within the genteel setting of an afternoon tea: The opening scene of “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” is hot.
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By Siddhant Adlakha
Posted: Apr 5, 2022 2:00 pm
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore hits theaters on April 15, 2022.
The Secrets of Dumbledore is the third film in the Fantastic Beasts series; there are two more entries planned, but ending the Harry Potter spinoff here would be a mercy. There’s nothing fantastic about the new movie. The story is dull. The characters are duller. It’s visually unimaginative, and there are few actual secrets of which to speak (one reveal from the last entry is mildly clarified, but that’s about it). Where its predecessor, The Crimes of Grindelwald, was built around a messy anti-climax — characters chase each other helter-skelter for two hours, only to eventually stand around yelling plot twists — this one falls apart much sooner, to the point that it has to introduce a whole new magical conceit in order to justify how haphazard the whole thing truly is.
The only half-important development occurs in the opening scene, in which — after 15 years of self-congratulatory authorial statements without much to show for it in the text — Dumbledore explicitly professes that he was once in love with Grindelwald. From there on out, things tumble downhill. A newborn magical deer known as a “Qilin” is at the center of an incoherent nighttime chase. Newt is protecting it for some reason — a reason beyond his love for animals, that is — while the bitter Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller), now a henchman for Grindelwald, is in pursuit. Why? Well, nothing is really clear in the moment, setting the stage for a film defined by vague character objectives on all sides and at every turn. The very act of following the story quickly becomes a passive affair. Some people’s motivations are eventually clarified, though only through verbal explanation well after the fact, and at least three major characters are at the center of 180-degree turns that feel triggered by the flip of a switch. One of these characters even 180s a second time; the reasoning is just as flimsy. Steve Kloves, who wrote all but one of the Harry Potter films, returns to the franchise and shares screenplay credit with J.K. Rowling, so references to previous movies arrive in even greater numbers, but the script often feels like it was written by a plot-twist-generating algorithm.
The magical baby deer is representative of a few central, nagging problems, even though it barely features on screen. For one thing, it serves a typically Rowling purpose — which is to say, a completely logistical one that circumvents the need for recognizable ethos. In a creative decision that mirrors the climax of her novel The Deathly Hallows (in which Harry Potter defeats Voldemort on a magical, wand-centric technicality, rather than anything dealing with their beliefs or actions), it turns out that this Qilin has a role in selecting wizard-dom’s new magical leader. This proves to be an issue because the overarching plot concerns Grindelwald being cleared of his crimes and standing for a major election at the last second. Numerous allusions are drawn to the rise of Adolf Hitler, and the specter of Donald Trump isn’t far from the film’s purview, but it has no actual politics of which to speak, since it’s only nominally about people choosing to throw support behind an authoritarian. It never needs Grindelwald to express what he believes through words or actions — i.e. his supposed bigotry against Muggles, largely referenced by other characters — since the election comes down to the specifics of a mystical ceremony, rather than anything akin to a real-world process where people’s voices and opinions matter. It rarely feels like there’s an actual “Wizarding World” beyond the confines of the set, let alone one with actual perspectives and moving political parts.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
You could end the series here and little of value would be lost. What remains, by the time The Secrets of Dumbledore comes to a close, is merely the promise of watching the same patch of grey paint continuing to dry over two more entries. Please. No more.
While Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore finally makes Dumbledore canonically gay, it does little else of note, remaining scattered across half a dozen inconsequential subplots for most of its runtime. It looks drab and feels like it was made by people who want to leave its magical premise behind, even though the series refuses to have any...
- Siddhant Adlakha
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is a significant improvement over its predecessors, proving that Steve Kloves really can work miracles. Full Review | Original Score: B |...
Apr 5, 2022 · Apr 5, 2022 7:00am PT. ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore’ Review: Mads Mikkelsen Goes Dark, J.K. Rowling Goes Deep in Emotional Middle Chapter. Replacing Johnny Depp as the...
Apr 14, 2022 · PG-13. 2h 22m. Find Tickets. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. Like so much children’s entertainment these days,...
Apr 15, 2022 · 2 7. 38 Videos. 99+ Photos. Adventure Family Fantasy. Albus Dumbledore knows that Gellert Grindelwald is moving to take control of the wizarding world. Unable to stop him alone, he asks Newt Scamander to lead an intrepid team on a dangerous mission. Director. David Yates. Writers. J.K. Rowling. Steve Kloves. Stars. Eddie Redmayne. Jude Law.
