Fantastic Beasts 3: The Secrets of Dumbledore – Movie Review
142 Minutes, Rated PG-13
Written by J.K. Rowling and Steve Kloves
Directed by David Yates
Synopsis:
Professor Albus Dumbledore knows the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald is moving to seize control of the wizarding world. Unable to stop him alone, he entrusts Magizoologist Newt Scamander to lead an intrepid team of wizards, witches and one brave Muggle baker on a dangerous mission, where they encounter old and new beasts and clash with Grindelwald’s growing legion of followers. But with the stakes so high, how long can Dumbledore remain on the sidelines?
Three films into the extended Harry Potter Universe and I have to ask the same question: what is the point of these films?
Before you come after me with pitchforks and torches: slow your roll, people; it’s not like I hate the movies or anything.
The original 7-book/8-film epic adventures of Harry Potter were pretty compelling stuff, to be sure. Yes, countless millions of children were swept into the darkness of magic and demon worship as a result, but isn’t that a price worth paying if they wanted to actually read a book?
I kid; millions of kids were NOT swept into the darkness of yada-yada-yada…
Maybe a couple dozen, tops.
But the kids did read, and that’s saying something.
Where was I?
Ah, yes, The Secrets of Dumbledore.
…
…
Not really many actual secrets, are there?
Look, let’s be honest, okay? The Fantastic Beasts films, for all their wonderful sets and cinematography and opportunities for Eddie Redmayne to galavant around doing perfectly Eddie Redmayne-y things, suffer from the exact same malady that struck another high-profile, well-loved, cinematic franchise: Star Wars.
When the “Prequel Trilogy” released, Star Wars fans were rabid for two reasons:
– there hadn’t been any new fandom content (cinematically speaking, at any rate) for over 15 years, and
– the broad story strokes of the films were already well-known. Characters’ arcs had been documented by officially and unofficial for years, and all that was left was the window dressing.
Fantastic Beasts, effectively gives us the same issues. Sure, Newt Scamander is an interesting character in theory, but by the time we get to Harry Potter, he’s presumed dead (though the presumably much older Dumbledore is still kicking…hmm…) which means that he is simply a tool designed to get us to the universe that we already know.
Which means that, though he is the centerpiece of the three films, he’s not the protagonist, per se; that distinction remains with Dumbledore, even though he’s barely acknowledged in the first film.
Look, The Secrets of Dumbledore is a perfectly fine film, but that is all it is; it’s a chance for die-hard Potterheads to tool around in the universe they love, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Every fandom does that. That’s what being a fan is all about.
The film is shot beautifully; I don’t think there’s been an “ugly” Harry Potter film. The settings are great and the score is moving and cinematic.
This time, though, parents might have to explain a few things to younger kids, like birth and death, and not in a Cedric Diggory death kind of way. Nope.
This is like a “Bambi’s mom” kind of thing. Pretty dark stuff. Darker than that, I think.
Add into the mix all of the current controversy surrounding Rowling and the almost 100% absent Katherine Waterston (for reasons of her own, apparently), and it almost undoes all of the good that Mads Mikkelson brings to the role previously occupied by Johnny Depp (now gone because of his own controversies), and I was left wondering not where Fantastic Beast 4 was going to go, but whether I cared enough to even wonder.
Fantastic Beast 3: The Secrets of Dumbledore opens April 15 and stars Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Mads Mikkelsen, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Callum Turner, and Richard Coyle.
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