Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)

By: Mike Ward on Sunday, April 17

PG-13 Running Time: 142 mins

SHOULD I SEE IT?

YES

Enduring fans of the Harry Potter franchise will be curious to see how the latest Wizarding World movie plays out after a series of controversies and COVID-19 delays.
Jude Law does make a pretty terrific younger incarnation of Dumbledore.
Elements of what made the Harry Potter so special to a whole lot of people are found at times in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. That will help with the nostalgia factor.

NO

Joyless and uninteresting, the movie is just wandering and uninspired.
Should the film underperform, the fourth and fifth films in this series may be shelved. Perhaps, at this point, this would all work better as a film series anyway?
Good performances from Law and Mads Mikkelsen get wasted, and the potential for developing interesting characters gets drowned out by a convoluted script and overlong film that tries to resurrect a magic that likely has run its course.

OUR REVIEW

As Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore proves, there’s just not much left to explore from a creative standpoint in the Harry Potter cinematic universe. What once looked effortless and exciting, has now become mundane, boring, and uninspired.

In January 2022, the cast from the first Harry Potter film reunited for a special on Peacock and instantly a jolt of reality hit everyone that grew up watching those movies. These kids are adults - some 20 years older. The nostalgia factor was in full effect when Hermione, Ron, and Harry sat down with additional cast members and reminisced about their experiences making their eight-film series. However, smash cut to April - and the dwindling acclaim and downright disinterest around the Fantastic Beasts prequels could not seem to be more deafening.

Rare for a Potter-verse film, controversy swirled ahead of the arrival of this third Fantastic Beasts film. Johnny Depp, embedded in the first two films as Dumbledore’s first crush and eventual rival, Gellert Grindewald, left the series because of escalating personal issues. In recent years, the famous author of the Potter series and franchise made statements through social media discriminatory against the transgender community. Then, when pressed to clarify, she doubled down and alienated a core and devout group of Potter fans around the world.

Though Mads Mikkelsen is a great choice to replace Depp, he is not a box office draw. So, the financial success of this third Fantastic Beasts film is banking on name recognition alone. Perhaps that’s why Dumbledore’s familiar name pops up in the title.

Sadly, The Secrets of Dumbledore just wanders around on screen. At 142 minutes, the screenplay is something of a mess. Not because it is haphazardly constructed or one of those movies at odds with itself. Instead, the movie just proves to be rather joyless. Other than a few snickers and smiles from Dumbledore, no one really genuinely smiles or looks happy until a wedding scene at the end of the film. Clearly, this is the most “un-fun” of any of the Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts films, and that includes this film’s predecessor - the messy, unkempt The Crimes of Grindewald.

Dumbledore and Grindewald, portrayed by Jude Law and Mikkelsen, respectively, generate strong chemistry together as they set aside a burgeoning romantic relationship for a blood pact in the film’s intriguing opening sequence. That pact is doomed to fail of course, as Grindewald has a villainous plan to rule all of the magical wizarding world and destroy all Muggles. Quickly we are reminded that Dumbledore is the film’s kind-hearted yin to his former partner’s deathly yang.

Summoning a faction to fight Grindewald’s villainous intentions, we reconnect with Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne, as stunted and awkward as ever in this role), his assistant Bunty (Victoria Yeates), and brother Theseus (Callum Turner). Joining the team is Professor Hicks (Jessica Williams), recruited from an American wizardry school, while French-born wizard Yusuf (William Nadylam) and the token comic-relief Muggle, Jacob (Dan Fogler) also make a return.

As the team assembles, Grindewald is on the move. He has seized possession of a rare Qilin baby calf, a magical animal who sees the purest of hearts and can peer into the future. Through violence and reincarnation, the Qilin is imprinted upon Grindewald - a crucial step as he attempts to round up his perceived enemies, cut back-handed deals, and chart a path to win an election and become the Supreme leader of all the wizards everywhere.

Though each member of Dumbledore’s team has a unique personality and appearance, they simply are unable to stand out from one another. The plot becomes so convoluted and characters go away for such long stretches of time, the one constant is Law’s Dumbledore. Unfortunately he cannot carry this movie, written this way, on his own.

The elements of the now-traditional Harry Potter movie do pop in here and there. One scene where the Dumbledorians arrive at Hogwarts is fun, arriving with the classic John Williams’ score and some young wizards engaged in a game of Quidditch. The production design is top notch, as expected, and the visual effects seem much more tightly constructed this time around.

But again - there’s just not much to enjoy here. We have seen the “rise-to-power-at-all-costs” story play out in countless movies over time and we simply know how all of this is likely going to turn out. There are few if any surprises, and the dialogue and scene-to-scene story being told is just flat, uninspired, and uninteresting.

Naturally, on the eve of the film’s release, another controversy arises involving co-star Ezra Miller. Miller is here, portraying Dumbledore’s troubled nephew, Credence, for the third consecutive film. He is crowbarred into this story as a pawn in the eventual power struggle between Dumbledore and Grindewald. However, recent reports of troubling behavior from Miller in recent weeks, and a previous incident of violence dating back to 2020, has left his involvement in any future Fantastic Beasts films reportedly in question.

And just maybe that’s a sign that this franchise should really be put to rest. Eleven films in, I’m just not sure there’s much more magic left to be discovered in this particular wizarding world.

CAST & CREW

Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Mads Mikkelsen, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Allison Sudol, Callum Turner, Jessica Williams, William Nadylam, Victoria Yeates, Poppy Corby-Tuech, Richard Coyle, Oliver Masucci, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Dave Wong, Katherine Waterston

Director: David Yates
Written by: J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves
Based on characters created by J.K. Rowling
Release Date: April 15, 2022
Warner Bros.

Enduring fans of the Harry Potter franchise will be curious to see how the latest Wizarding World movie plays out after a series of controversies and COVID-19 delays.

Jude Law does make a pretty terrific younger incarnation of Dumbledore.

Elements of what made the Harry Potter so special to a whole lot of people are found at times in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. That will help with the nostalgia factor.

Joyless and uninteresting, the movie is just wandering and uninspired.

Should the film underperform, the fourth and fifth films in this series may be shelved. Perhaps, at this point, this would all work better as a film series anyway?

Good performances from Law and Mads Mikkelsen get wasted, and the potential for developing interesting characters gets drowned out by a convoluted script and overlong film that tries to resurrect a magic that likely has run its course.