Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

The continuation of the Fantastic Beasts story is now available in theaters

RATING: PG-13

LENGTH: 2 hours 22 minutes (This is the longest Fantastic Beast film in the franchise.)

IN A NUTSHELL:

Professor Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) knows the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen) is moving to seize control of the wizarding world. Unable to stop him alone, he entrusts Magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) 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?

The movie was directed by David Yates, who also directed the previous ones and some of the Harry Potter movies.

THINGS I LIKED:

The cast is fantastic and features Academy Award featured Eddie Redmayne and Jude Law, in addition to Mads Mikkelsen, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Callum Turner, Katherine Waterston, and more!
Eddie Redmayne and Callum Turner are completely believable as brothers!
When the creatures are being shown, the movie is FANTASTIC. We get to see some new ones that are pretty awesome.
The special effects are very cool.
Fun fact: Aleksandr Kuznetsov’s character, Helmut, gets his nose smashed. In real life, Kuznetsov broke his nose during a boxing match so they didn’t have to use make-up to get the squashed look they desired in the movie.
Really great costume and set design.
Some charming humor. The crab scene cracked me up and reminded me of the funny mating ritual dance Newt Scamander did with the Erumpent in the first movie.
Nice musical score by James Newton Howard.
Beautiful cinematography by George Richmond.
I can’t get enough of Pickett, the Bowtruckle. In this film, we get some good closeups of his adorableness.
We get to visit Hogwarts in this movie!

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

The first scene starts off very slowly and I was worried it was going to make the mistake of being a “talking movie” rather than one filled with magic and intrigue. As it turns out, sadly, the entire movie is a bit dull and dark.
What is up with Alison Sudol’s face? Plastic surgery? She looked like she was in shock in every scene. I absolutely adored her pretty and sweet character in the first Fantastic Beasts movie but she almost looks like a different actress in this one. She was beautiful and didn’t need to change her looks at all.
Jessica Williams’ accent was terrible and kept changing.
Johnny Depp is battling his ex-wife in court right now, but don’t feel too sorry for him. He earned $16 million dollars for only filming one scene in this movie before he was let go. In the story itself, there’s no explanation for the change of actors. They could have easily offered some magical transformation as an excuse. I like Mads Mikkelsen but didn’t actually like him in this role. He had one facial expression the entire time.
Fans of Katherine Waterston will be sad to see that she only appears as a small cameo performer in this movie.
Ultimately, the movie is stuffed with so many characters who don’t seem to go anywhere. It’s as if the main characters hadn’t learned anything nor progressed since the last two movies.
This is one of those movies where you can leave the theater to go to the bathroom or get popcorn and absolutely not miss anything when you get back to your seat.
If I ever watched this movie again, I’d fast-forward to the parts with the fantastic creatures in them. Sadly, that would be a very short watch.
The street-fighting scenes bored me because we had already seen so much of that before in the last movie.
Some viewers might not enjoy all of the politics both in the story and the casting.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

A homosexual relationship is talked about.
Violence
Destruction
People and creatures in perilous situations
Someone kills a baby animal and we see a bloody death.

THEMES:

Brotherhood and family
Lost love
Magic
Loyalty and alliances
Courage
Pure in heart

INTERESTING LINES:

“We can free each other.” – Albus Dumbledore to Grindelwald
“I don’t tell him. Not always, not everything.” – Queenie Goldstein to Credence
“You were willing to put yourself in danger to save a perfect stranger. Seems to me you’re the kind of average Joe the world needs right now.” – Lally Hicks to Jacob
“Can’t be nervous about a speech after saving the world.” – Theseus Scamander
“I’m always going to have room in my heart for you.” – Jacob Kowalski