So the next Fantastic Beasts movie has arrived in theaters and I watched it so you don't have to. While this movies is better than the prior film it is still further away from being about Newt and his beasts. Welcome to my review of the latest installment of the Harry Potter franchise.
Authored by Doc Comeau on Thursday, April 28th, 2022 at 3:30 PM EST
Fantastic Beasts is the story of Dumbledore and Grindelwald playing Wizard's Chess with actual witches and wizards. Grindelwald tries to manipulate the election to sieze Supreme control and start his war with the Muggles and Dumbledore attempts to protect a very rare beast Newt tracked down to prevent this from happening. Just to reveal that Dumbledore's secret is he is gay which if you are a long time Harry Potter fan is not really a secret.
David Yates Director of the last four Harry Potter films returns to direct this film. Outside Harry Potter he is known for 2016's The Legend of Tarzan. A movie I have to admit I have never heard of and have no interest in watching, but he does manage to bring the magic of the Harry Potter films to this new movie.
Callum Turner returns as head of Britain's Auror Office and Newt's brother Theseus and Jessica Williams joins the team as Professor Lally Hicks. Theseus being the top Auror and Hicks being rival by no other charms makes for the team's perfect choice of muscle. The two defend the others from Grindelwald's Dark wizards and witches.
Redmayne and Fogler return as Newt and Jacob. Together with others the help Dumbledore enacts a plan to stop Grindelwald. A plan that is suited to Newt's ability and knowledge for Fantastical Beasts
Alison Sudol and William Nadylam return as Queenie and Yusaf Karma. Queenie is beginning to show signs of doubt over her choice to join Grindelwald and Yusaf desires revenge for the death of his sister Leta. Together they help thwart Grindelwald from within his own camp.
Jude Law returns as Dumbledore, but Johnny Depp is replaced by Mads Mikkleson in the role of Grindelwald. Jude Law continues to do Dumbledore justice and Mads was better suited for Grindelwald over Depp. Though his replacement was not and should not have been required.
Ezra Miller returns as Credence Barebone now known as Aurelius Dumbledore and Rochard Cole reprises his role as Albus' brother Aberforth. Credence struggles with what Grindelwald wants of him while Aberforth harbors a family secret. A secret that connects the two characters.
Finally Victoria Yeates returns as Newt's assistant and fellow Magizoologist Bunty Broadacre. Yeates plays a small but pivotal role in the plot. She is tasked with protecting Newt's suitcase of Fantastic Beasts from Grindelwald's men who desperately try and seek it out
The Tomatometer has this movie sitting at "49%" out of "187 Reviews" and an Audience Score of "85%" out of "2500+ reviews." A slightly higher than average score from the last film as it addressed some of the concerns from the last movie. As always the Critic Consensus can be found below.
CRITICS CONSENSUS: 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 movies ago.
To help fight spoilers, I will give you my Rating now like I always do. Continue reading at your own risk if you want to avoid them. This film gets a 6.7 put 10. The actors and crew with top notch, but the corporate story with Woke elements ultimately killed it. The fans wanted a story of Newt exploring Fantastic Beasts not a Relationship Squabble between two gay wizards.
This film gets a 6.7 put 10. The actors and crew with top notch, but the corporate story with Woke elements ultimately killed it. - Doc Comeau
This was by far the worst part of this entire film. Once again, they related Newt and his beasts to plot devices rather than them being the focal point of the whole film. I will give them that at least a beast was essential to the Plat of the film rather than background flare like the previous installment. A Fantastic Beasts movie should be solely focused on Fantastic Beasts not a storyline about a character's gayness.
Now I am not one to care about a particular character's sexual preference as it should be irrelevant to the character's journey and just background traits, but in true corporate woke faction its the main focus of the film Dumbledore's big secret is that he is gay for Grindelwald. A secret that as I mentioned before is not really a secret, but it's sure a secret the Chinese want to forget as they cut it completely to the cut they showed in their region
The story of this movie was disjointed and forced for corporate money grab. It didn't have the cohesive flow the original Harry Potter films had with each other and made the film worse than it could have been. I was forced to give this section of the film a 5 out 10. I would have preferred a story about Fantastic Beasts and not this side plot.
I was forced to give this section of the film a 5 out 10. I would have preferred a story about Fantastic Beasts and not this side plot. - Doc Comeau
This was by far the greatest part of the film. The actors involved all gave A List performances. Even the new additions to the assemble gave the same level of dedication to their character as the series regular.
Series newcomer Mads Mikkleson owned the role of Grindelwald despite getting the role through nefarious Woke corporate practices, he was a much better fit for the role. Johnny Depp gave an excellent performance, but the chemistry between Jude Law and Mads was more believable. As well as him being a Wizard version of Hitler. Depp was much more whimsical for such a role.
Dan Fogler also stood out among the performances. As a veteran of WWI and an American of the era Jacob played a role in calling out the lies defending Grindelwald and Fogler nailed that intention. His character was unable to contain his anger for the defense of such a psychotic serial killer. He even attempts to assassinate the man and his anger over the manipulation of the woman he loves was absolutely believable.
Jude Law got more screen time as Dumbledore in this film and he showcased Dumbledore's ability as a tactician perfectly. He also nailed Dumbledore's struggle between his dark past and his actual values. A struggle that ultimately kept him from killing the man he loves despite being granted the opportunity to do so.
There were way too many performances in this film to cover them all so I will end this section here. With better writing this movie could have been a cult hit, but instead it appears to not have the same magic as Harry Potter. Despite this I give the performances in this movie an 8 out of 10. Actors did their best despite the lack of good material to work with.
Despite this I give the performances in this movie an 8 out of 10. Actors did their best despite the lack of good material to work with. - Doc Comeau
This installment of the series brought the same level of expertise from the previous films in the World. This film also tried something unique in a few shots to help elevate it from the last installment that is far worse despite the Woke additions to this film. I will cover two of them in this section of the review.
The first of these two sequences was the fight between Dumbledore and Credence. They took a page from Marvel's Doctor Strange and Dumbledore transported and fought Credence in a weird mirror world that he knew how to manipulate. This ultimately allowed him to defeat Credence and help start and restore their family bond.
The second was the way Dumbledore ultimately broke the Blood Oath he made with Grindelwald allowing him to duel the evil wizard. When Grindelwald attempted to kill Credence at the end of the film, without thinking, Dumbledore sends a counter curse at Grindelwald's Killing Curse. This is basically Albus sacrificing himself to save another as normally the Blood Pact would cause harm to him for attacking Grindelwald. The part that made this unique is the slow motion and camera tracking of the beam of magic from Dumbledore's wand to where it intercepts Grindlewald's alongside his brother's counter curse.
I would give this section of the film a 7 out 10. It's a bit better than the last movie for these two unique scenes, but doesn't really elevate the story. I would hire the crew behind these effects, but I would give them better material to work with. This project was ultimately not worth such expert filmmakers.
I would give this section of the film a 7 out 10. It's a bit better than the last movie for these two unique scenes, but doesn't really elevate the story. - Doc Comeau
This movie had good acting and great Cinematography, but suffered from a shit story plague with unrelated woke ideology. I don't care about a movie designed around the secret that someone is gay. Just make them gay and write a good story where that is an irrelevant character trait. I cannot recommend this movie, despite being better than the previous film. I would wait for this to reach a streaming platform you already pay for and watch it for free.
1) IMDb.com. (2022, April 15). Fantastic beasts: The secrets of dumbledore. IMDb. Retrieved April 16, 2022, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4123432/
Archived By; https://archive.ph/gI6hp
2) Na. (n.d.). Fantastic beasts: The secrets of dumbledore. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 16, 2022, from https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fantastic_beasts_the_secrets_of_dumbledore
Archived By; https://archive.ph/tlKKg
3) Redmayne, E., Law, J., & Miller, E. (2022). Fantastic Beasts; Secrets of Dumbledore. Warner Bros.
