Ahead of its theatrical release, Fantastic Beasts film series, with an ensemble cast including Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Mads Mikkelsen, Ezra Miller, Alison Sudol, Callum Turner, Dan Fogler, Katherine Waterson, and Jessica Williams. The film follows Albus Dumbledore (Law), together with his ragtag team of allies, as he battles the evil magic of Gellert Grindelwald (Mikkelsen). Despite being a part of the Wizarding World franchise, Fantastic Beasts 3 is only rated as average.
While the production journey of the first two Fantastic Beasts films went relatively smoothly, that of Fantastic Beasts 3 had been interrupted for numerous reasons. Due to the negative publicity attributed to Johnny Depp’s case, he was asked not to reprise his role as Grindelwald; he was then replaced by Mads Mikkelsen. Moreover, its filming was postponed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of these setbacks, the film’s premiere was initially pushed back to July 15, 2022, before being scheduled for release on April 15.
As of writing, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore holds a 58% rating on backstory and relationship of Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Here are some of the positive reviews for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore:
With [JK Rowling’s] co-screenwriter Steve Kloves, she has taken an axe to her mediocre Fantastic Beasts franchise and cut from it all the excess nonsense that made the last film, The Crimes of Grindelwald, the least successful Wizarding World film. What remains is a muscular story with unexpected soul, slickly directed by the Warner Bros house elf David Yates (he did the last four Potters and all the Beasts).
Secrets of Dumbledore shows an impressive willingness to mess with the HP formula (and formulas in general). It’s a work in progress and within a whisker of being fantastic.
It really earns that teasing title, and that the series gains some significant emotional heft. Signature director David Yates offers a glossy, globetrotting quest that sensibly puts Jude Law’s troubled, charismatic Dumbledore front and centre.
This movie, with its gentle humour, japes, and truly fantastical beasties, is an appealing escape for kids and kidults alike. Even at its weakest, the Potterverse – with its magic, mayhem, and world class ability to create imaginary worlds of epic sweep and a million tiny details – retains its transportive power.
Luckily, this film manages to course-correct the narrative enough to evoke excitement in the characters and what the future might hold for them, even if it's still a far cry from the success of the proper Harry Potter series, as it invests more into its characters than its predictable premise.
On the other hand, despite the potential within another Wizarding World film, Fantastic Beasts 3 remains ineffective in melding the worlds of dark magic and mystical creatures. Even though it is a collaboration between JK Rowling and the Harry Potter film series writer Steve Kloves, the movie adds nothing new to the well-loved franchise. Its plot hinges largely on the wizarding elections, while the endless list of characters does not serve the premise well, especially since they do not have meaningful arcs of their own. Here are more of the negative Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore reviews:
Potter fans (guilty as charged) will grade “Secrets” on a curve, despite its weaknesses. It may not be the most spellbinding of the prequels so far, but it does advance this saga in an entertaining, if less than fantastic way.
But despite the ornate world-building constructed from CGI, a mid-20th-century European fascist aesthetic and lots of very nicely tailored tweed, it’s still a lumbering, unwieldy creature compared to the first film: fewer fantastic beasts, more stuffy political plotting and electoral malpractice.
The series’ third outing, “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” falls into precisely the same traps as its predecessor, offering up an unwieldy, mostly unsettling mash-up of adult themes and childish whimsy, made still more inscrutable by too many subplots, too many characters, and a tone that veers wildly off-course at every possible turn.
This latest entry in the franchise mostly goes through the motions, making a big deal out of revelations that fans will find old-hat, unceremoniously closing the door or ignoring storylines that previously seemed to be important, and sidelining characters who used to be the protagonists.
Like so many franchise titans long past their sell-by date, the Potter cinematic empire faces an existential crisis around the question of whether it can compel younger viewers to care about its next generation of heroes.
The last film Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald seemed to throw out everything audiences knew about the history of the Harry Potter universe and created a mess as a result.
Ultimately, this “Fantastic Beasts” has some moments of charm and energy, but falls prey to the same problem the two previous movies did: a story that’s both too complicated and unintriguing; in short, not well told. There are just too many characters, or maybe it’s that the characters aren’t sufficiently defined; despite having seen the previous films, many of them seemed to me like unmemorable strangers. The film, which uses both the director (Yates) and screenwriter (Steve Kloves, with Rowling) of many of the “Harry Potter” movies, is clearly trying to create that same magic. Sometimes, a spell only works once.
Twenty years later, the Wizarding World franchise, whose future can be saved by copying the DCEU, continues to expand with new characters amidst decades-old adventures. Fans loyal to the series might still appreciate this latest installment, no matter how mixed the critic reviews are. After all, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is still a magical addition to the nostalgic world of witches and wizards.
