Harrys Situation Reviews: Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
There weren't many crimes in the last film so expect very little secrets in this one.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is the third installment of the expansive world of Harry Potter, created by transphobic author J.K. Rowling. David Yates returns to the Wizarding World once more as the director, with the aforementioned Rowling returning as the screenwriter. Speaking of returns, Eddie Redmayne reprises as Newt Scamander, Jude Law reprises as Dumbledore, Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski, Ezra Miller as Credence Barebone, Callum Turner as Theseus Scamander, and now featuring Mads Mikkelsen as the dark wizard Grindelwald.
Continuing after the last Fantastic Beasts film, Grindelwald prepares to start his war with the muggle world by trying to claim leadership over the wizardry world. While Dumbledore cannot make a move against his old friend he assembles a team consisting of magical zoologist Newt Scamander, his Auror brother Theseus, and his muggle friend Jacob Kowalski in order to stop Grindelwald's war from coming.
Despite J.K. Rowling revealing herself to be a transphobic, cold-hearted bitch I do love the Harry Potter franchise. Unfortunately, these recent Fantastic Beast films hasn't been doing it for me.
Addressing the positives first the cast is excellent. That's the one thing that these Fantastic Beast films have going for them. Each film has a great cast and they all deliver solid performances. The best of the bunch, I'd say, is Jude Law as a younger Dumbledore and Mads Mikkelsen for his take as Grindelwald. With Jude Law I can definitely see a young Dumbledore. He acts exactly as I pictured Dumbledore from the books and how he's portrayed in the Harry Potter films. As for Mads Mikkelsen, he's great. Honestly I think Mads Mikkelsen is a better choice to play Grindelwald over Johnny Depp. If any is still complaining about the recasting keep in mind that technically three different actors have played the character of Grindelwald in each movie. Take all the time you need.
But in all seriousness Mads Mikkelsen was excellent. He pretty much carried the movie on his shoulders. He made me believe that this is who Grindelwald is in the eyes of the public versus Johnny Depp's unusual appearance. With Mikkelsen I can understand why people would follow him. There's power in his words and he's very charismatic. Johnny Depp, god I don't know what they were trying to do with him. He just looked off in that movie if I'm being completely honest.
The visuals are pretty solid too. I mean, I can't complain much about it. I also don't have more to say on the subject either. Honestly, it's a weak positive. Like, shit, do you expect the visuals to get worse in each film?
Now let's address the negatives starting with the story. The story in this movie is not very good. Basically the good guy's plot to stop the BBEG is to present an animal that can see someone's soul and knows if someone is purely good. I mean, that's it. The rest of the movie is just shit happens because Rowling just needed shit to happen. If anything it really shows that Rowling is not a screen writer.
I'll give credit to the first Fantastic Beasts it was trying to be its own thing separated from Harry Potter, and I enjoyed that. But with these two other films—the fact that they incorporate Dumbledore's backstory, Grindelwald, and other lore that doesn't match up to what's established—felt like they should have been something else, meaning they should not have had Newt Scamander and co. forced into these situations that they probably wouldn't find themselves to be in. My friend said it best that it probably would have been more interesting if all the Grindelwald stuff was its own set of movies without it having to connect to the Fantastic Beasts stuff, and I definitely agree.
Not to mention but this movie was so long with nothing really important happening through much of the runtime that it was a slow drag. This movie, like the last, was sadly boring.
But what I think gets me is that I feel there's a lack of inspiration in these movies, in terms of creating the material. When you look at the Harry Potter movies you can see there's a ton of inspiration and a ton of creativity. With the Harry Potter movies it was a different ride every time. It was a roller coaster, then a haunted house, and then a Ferris wheel. Those movies were a blast. These new Fantastic Beasts movies is much like being on the same Ferris wheel five or six times and wanting to be let off the damn thing. There's no real inspiration or creativity to be had with these movies. I'm wondering if it's because Warner Bros. is sucking out all creativity by milking the Harry Potter franchise further or if J.K. Rowling is just running out of ideas (or never really had good ideas when she started writing these Fantastic Beasts movies). Whatever the reason is it's clearly effecting the Fantastic Beast trilogy in a negative way.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was fun. This film not so much. It's a dull experience that's losing its magic (pun not intended).
Positives:
-Solid performances
-Solid visuals
Negatives:
-Long and boring
-The story
-Lack of inspiration
Final Grade: C-
So those are my thoughts on Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. Have you seen it? What were your thoughts on it? Please be kind, leave a like and comment, and check out more reviews here on Prose!
Best Quote:
Credence Barebone: "Have you ever thought about me?"
Aberforth Dumbledore: "Always."
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