‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore’ Non-Spoiler Review
With Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore hitting North American theaters this weekend, and with all of the controversies going around the movie, as well as declining interest from the fans, is it a must-watch? Let’s briefly discuss the movie, no spoilers ahead.
I find myself in a very interesting position, which I didn’t think possible back when the first Fantastic Beasts opened in 2016 and almost made a billion dollars worldwide. That movie, which did not only have great fan reception when it first premiered (an A Cinemascore), but also rather positive reviews, felt like a giant mess to me. It was trying to be two movies at once: one where Newt Scamander traveled to New York and was trying to find the magical creatures that had escaped his briefcase, and another one that involved Grindelwald (Colin Farrell) and an Obscurial. The last one felt like a studio mandate from WB so that they could greenlight sequels and make more money off of the Wizarding World.
Then Crimes of Grindelwald came out, and while Newt was still running around with his creatures, the plot was much more focused on Grindelwald as the big baddie, and also took the opportunity to grace us with Jude Law as young Dumbledore, a match made in heaven. While I didn’t love Crimes of Grindelwald (for some of the reasons I didn’t love Secrets of Dumbledore), I thought it was much more consistent than the previous entry. But at this point, audiences had lost interest.
The Secrets of Dumbledore is, above all, a sequel to Crimes of Grindelwald. And while that may seem stupidly obvious to say, it’s the best short description I can come up with. If you liked or enjoyed the previous movie, you are probably going to feel the same way here. If you hated it, you are probably not gonna have a good time. The movie has some flaws, it has some things I really enjoyed, but if you are dubious about buying a ticket, just think about how you felt about the last one, and make the decision based on that.
This franchise, in a few years, will be worth studying for many reasons. Let us remember that, back in 2018, WB started running with a “Don’t spoil the movie” campaign for Grindelwald, and, at least for me, the movie didn’t have that many surprises to spoil. Sure, there was an interesting reveal by the end about Ezra Miller’s origins, but it’s not an Avengers: Infinity War-level spoiler. The second Fantastic Beasts movie felt like another chapter in an overall story that wasn’t very memorable, but to me, it wasn’t unwatchable either.
The Secrets of Dumbledore is very much the same. It has some interesting developments and a few (very predictable) twists, but overall feels like another chapter in a larger story. In a lot of ways, it could feel refreshing among the many franchises that are advertising their new movies like their biggest events yet. Think about it, from Morbius, which went out of its way to tell audiences Michael Keaton is in the movie, to Jurassic World: Dominion or Doctor Strange 2, most franchise movies are being advertised like a must-see event so you can know the latest twist in a very complex story.
Meanwhile, the Fantastic Beasts movie are simply another piece in the puzzle, and in a lot of ways are like the Harry Potter books, though not as interesting and certainly not as charming and magical, for lack of a better word. There is a lot to explore in this world, and my imagination was soaring while watching the film, because of the many in-world possibilities for stories that are present here. Unfortunately, I hope they get other people to tell those stories one day.
To me, the biggest flaw of these movies is that they are just dull. Visually, they are not interesting to look at in the least. Sure, there are some wonderful visual effects going on that make the world feel very magical (though I still contend that not as much as the books), but the very bland cinematography is hard to get behind. The color palette of this movie, and the previous ones too (even going back to the last few Harry Potter movies that David Yates directed) is basically gray-based, and that just gets boring very quickly. The sky is cloudy most of the time, the buildings the characters are surrounded by are not colorful at all, and the sets are not that great, to be honest.
There’s a point in this movie in which we visit a place that is described as “the most beautiful place on Earth.” But once we get there, it’s just another hill that lacks any green and is just rocks surrounded by clouds, and it is very sad to look at overall. And that sadness oftentimes extends to the characters. While I like David Yates’ camerawork, I don’t really like how he directs the characters. Besides Dumbledore, which I’ll get to in a minute, his characters are often not interesting, going all the way back to his Harry Potter movies. And that is pretty much a crime, as Harry, Hermione, and Ron are some of the most interesting characters I’ve encountered in my life. But they lost a lot of charisma when they made the transition from book to the screen.
And to be clear, that doesn’t extend to the scripts. The scripts for all of Yates’ movies tried to make the characters interesting, but there’s something about the way he directs actors that doesn’t click for me. It’s for that reason that I think if WB is moving forward with these movies, they should hire another director and give this franchise some life. Hell, it should be the most fantastical, magical (no pun intended for either one), and wonderful set of films to look at, but it feels like all the magic comes out through visual effects and nothing more.
Dumbledore is by far the most interesting part of this movie, and I absolutely loved Jude Law’s portrayal as well as where the story takes him. This could be the most book-accurate depiction of Dumbledore yet, and the title of the movie does the character a lot of justice. He is the guy that knows it all and always stays in control, but he has to ask people to trust him often, because if it’s only him in the know, it’s more likely they’ll succeed. And that doesn’t mean he doesn’t trust people. He was always great at picking unlikely allies and making them a pivotal point of his plan, and he does that again in this movie.
However, Dumbledore also has a lot of sadness inside and a tragic past, and that is explored here. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the Deathly Hallows movies, but I remember the book pretty well. The book explores a lot of Dumbledore’s past, which I don’t think ever made it to the movies. Fantastic Beasts 3 brings that to life, and I loved the way they did it.
My favorite part of the movie was, by far, seeing Dumbledore in action. It’s funny because, while he’s been our gateway to some of the most magical elements in the Harry Potter books/movies, we haven’t really seen him wand in hand. He had an awesome duel with Lord Voldemort in Order of the Phoenix, but besides that, we’ve just seen him do some small tricks around Hogwarts. But in The Secrets of Dumbledore, he gets his hands dirty. And I hope that, if they make at least another movie, we get to finally see an unhinged Dumbledore.
His relationship with Grindelwald is a pivotal part of the movie, but there’s clearly a lot more to it than what they covered here. The Dumbledore vs. Grindelwald storyline it’s one I’ve been waiting since 2007 to see, and I would love for these movies to continue just so that they can complete it. I understand there are some real-life problems, but for better or worse, WB is very much in the J.K. Rowling business. They cannot do more Wizarding World stuff without her, and there’s too much money at stake to abandon the franchise. It’s very interesting because her stories (including this one) have always been about inclusivity and uniting people instead of separating them. It’s really hard for me to wrap my head around what’s going on inside her mind.
As you may have heard by now, Mads Mikkelsen had to replace Johnny Depp as Grindelwald for this movie after the studio parted ways with the actor. To be honest, I never had a problem with Depp’s performance in the previous movie, and it was kind of jarring to me seeing Mikkelsen here. He doesn’t look at all like Depp, and he’s not really who I imagined as a kid reading the books. So, should he continue playing the role, I’ll probably get used to it, but if I’m being honest, he never really clicked for me as Grindelwald. I hope I’ll retract those words in a few years. It’s also possible that it’s because I’ve seen another actor play the role in the previous movie, and my mind hasn’t adjusted. I tried to ignore that as much as possible during the film, but never really got past it.
That leads me to my next point, because this franchise has been an absolute mess in terms of rotating people, especially from the second Fantastic Beasts to this one. Katherine Waterston, who was a pivotal character in the first two movies, is barely present in this one, as many people already noted from the trailers and character posters. We never got the official reason behind that, and it’s likely that Waterston simply suffered some scheduling problems due to COVID-19, and couldn’t film this movie when they were finally ready. And that didn’t stop the writers from rewriting chunks of the movie (it’s true she was outspoken about Rowling’s comments, but I doubt, and hope, that had anything to do with it).
As I mentioned before, Depp was replaced by Mikkelsen, and apparently, most critics agree that it was a change for the better. Audiences will probably agree with them. The Crimes of Grindelwald introduced some new characters — some of them survived, some of them didn’t. And some of them appear again in this movie, while others don’t. This movie also introduces new characters, one of which is Jessica Williams as Professor Hicks, who was a fantastic addition to the crew. I hope she makes it to the next one, but we never know.
And now WB has the problem with Ezra Miller. Just with the two cases I mentioned, it should be clear that the writers have no problem with taking people in and out of the story to fit their latest draft. The studio is reportedly halting any future projects involving Ezra Miller. If they wanted to continue with a fourth Fantastic Beasts movie, the ending of this film presents a perfect opportunity to just take him out of the picture. He was once considered a pivotal part of the story, but, much like Newt Scamander got sidelined from the first movie into this one (something that worked for the better in my opinion), he could now be taken out, and we wouldn’t even notice it.
At this point, keeping the “Fantastic Beasts” part of the titles is just for brand recognition, as the story has moved well beyond that. There is only one scene in this movie that honored that part of the title, and honestly, it was very stupid. I would have been more than okay had they taken it out, and I will be very happy if they don’t bring up the matter of magical beasts again.
So, to wrap up, if you’ve enjoyed the movies up until now, you will probably enjoy this one too. If you’ve been disappointed by them, you will probably feel the same way here. I cannot convince anyone to see it, and if you prefer to wait until it hits HBO Max, that should be fine too. There are no gigantic spoilers in this movie, just the regular amount of surprises and small twists that come with any Harry Potter story.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
