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 and witches. They soon encounter an array of old and new beasts as they clash with Grindelwald’s growing legion of followers.
I am a huge Harry Potter fan. Not of the books, but the movies. Maybe I’ll read J.K. Rowling’s novels one day, but for now, the films are what I love. After the Harry Potter series ended in 2011, it was announced in September 2013 that there would be a new series of films within the Wizarding World under the heading “Fantastic Beasts.” They would serve as a spin-off and prequel to the Harry Potter franchise but one that would transpire mainly within America, set in the 1920s, with an entirely new set of characters.
The first installment, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” was released in 2016 to mixed reviews, and while I enjoyed the film, I felt it underwhelmed. Its sequel, the 2018 “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” disappointed even more than its predecessor, but the one redeeming aspect was Johnny Depp’s Gellert Grindelwald. He infused the film with a chilling, villainous depth that is sorely missing from “The Secrets of Dumbledore.” Mads Mikkelsen is a terrific actor, and while he takes over Depp’s Grindelwald, sadly, he does not live up to the character’s viciousness that was on display in “The Crimes of Grindelwald.”
“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” takes place in the 1930s and starts with Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) being recruited to help his old friend, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), on a secret mission. When Jacob and Newt meet up at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, they are informed by Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) that their old nemesis, Gellert Grindelwald (Mikkelsen), is getting ready to start an all-out war with No-Majs, a term given to humans in America, or Muggles as they’re known in the British Potterverse. Now, Newt, Jacob, and Albus, along with some trusted friends, must prevent Grindelwald from assembling his army on the cusp of World War II.
I had no issue with the overall narrative; it was in its execution where everything came crumbling down. Newt, Jacob, Albus, and their colleagues are all given individual missions, so the film spends the majority of its runtime trying to follow each character and their given assignments, culminating in a sloppy and lazy conclusion, where Grindelwald manages to elude them all, no doubt ready to turn up in the next chapter.
One of the major issues I’ve had with this franchise is its central protagonist, Newt Scamander. Eddie Redmayne is an admirable actor who is known for giving outstanding performances in independent films like “My Week with Marilyn,” “Les Misérables,” and “The Theory of Everything,” and his Oscar-winning performance as transgender artist Lili Elbe in “The Danish Girl,” but he seems oddly out of place in big-budget spectacles such as Fantastic Beasts and the Wachowskis’ “Jupiter Ascending.” He looks suited for more personal stories instead of explosive, awe-inspiring extravaganzas.
As Newt Scamander, he is exceptionally mild-mannered and unpretentious but prone to occasional outbursts of mumbling incoherently and incessantly. This routine is endearing when we first meet him, but as this quirk continues throughout every movie, it becomes a major distraction. Dan Fogler’s Jacob Kowalski is still the only character who manages to elicit anything resembling an actual performance, along with some occasional moments of levity. Every other character, including Jude Law’s Dumbledore and Mads Mikkelsen’s Grindelwald, are caricatures that never seem to ascend above the paper they were written on.
Katherine Waterston played Tina Goldstein, Newt’s love interest, in the first two iterations, but she is sorely missed from “The Secrets of Dumbledore,” and a five-minute cameo at the end of the movie is supposed to rectify her absence. It doesn’t. Her exclusion is quickly explained as a promotion to the head of the Magical Congress of the United States of America. For the most part, the cast does fine in their respective roles, but none of them leave any lasting impressions. David Yates returns as director, having directed the last two films and the previous four Harry Potter movies, but maybe it’s time to hand the reins over to a new up-and-coming filmmaker who could add something fresh to a series already feeling long in the tooth. The special effects and CGI are top-notch, but they are wasted in scenes that don’t help propel the narrative forward; instead, they are created as dazzling diversions, delivering an abundance of flash over substance.
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