Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

After 4 years of waiting, the newest Fantastic Beast film was released in theaters this weekend. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore follows Newt Scamander and his friends as they once again go on a mission from Dumbledore to stop Grindelwald from rising into power.

As has been the case with the last two films, it is a lot of fun to see an adult-centric wizarding world. In the Harry Potter series, the story is centered around children and their experience with learning magic. The fantastic beasts films can show us everyday life for an experienced wizard, a more in-depth look at the ministry of magic and how the Aurors operate, and some more intense battles that show what fully trained wizards are capable of. This movie also takes a different direction with the tone and makes this movie feel more like a political thriller which is a new and interesting way to go. Some of the characters in the films are also a lot of fun, specifically the muggle Jacob as you get to see the wizarding world through the eyes of a muggle. Another positive note is the replacement of Johnny Depp with Mads Mikkelsen as Grindelwald. I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with how WB responded to Johnny Depp however, Mads Mikkelsen definitely fits the part better than Johnny Depp did. You can definitely buy into him being a charismatic leader and having a previous relationship with Dumbledore as compared to Johnny Depp who just came across as his normal weird crazy character.

Unfortunately, there was quite a bit wrong with the film. As has been with the entire fantastic beasts series, this film just doesn't capture the magic of the original Harry Potter. It feels like the film is trying really hard to fit in but it is just not the same. Because of that, it is just really hard to get into the film as something just does not feel right. The other major issue with this series is that Newt is not the right lead. The whole point of the series is to build to the big battle between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, but having a magic zoologist as the lead going through all these missions just does not make sense. Though I like Newt as a character, he just feels so out of place in all these battles and events. It feels as though even though he is the lead of the series, the story does not want to focus on him and he is just kind of there. There were also some major course correction plotlines in this film, specifically for Credence and Queenie, where the story was trying to undo what was written in the last film instead of building on it which is never really a good direction to go. As a whole, it seems like there is no plan with the plot. During the first half of the film, characters are all over the place going to events in which they really have no impact or having little side plots that really have no impact on the overall story. Dumbledore's whole plan was to have a plan so chaotic that Grindelwald couldn't foresee, evidently this is what happens but at the expense of the coherency of the plot. It seems like JK Rowling doesn't understand that writing a book is very different than writing a screenplay which I think is the chief issue with this series.

Overall, this film fails to recapture the magic of the Harry Potter films. While it is enjoyable enough and never boring, the lack of coherency of the plot makes it not much of an improvement over the low of Crimes of Grindelwald.

Grade: C+ Score: 6/10

Recommendation: Unless you are a huge Harry Potter fan, you can probably wait until this comes out on streaming.