There isn’t much "fantastic" happening in the latest instalment of the Harry Potter spinoff series Fantastic Beasts. Fans of the Wizarding World will be confused on what happened to the magic, action and fun from the franchise. Non-fans will be utterly confused about what’s going on at all.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is fumbled snore. At nearly two and half hours, the film is slow-paced, eventless for the first 90 minutes, and devoid of much excitement or any of the promised adventure that a big-budget fantasy film like this should deliver on.
Following the events of 2018’s The Crimes of Grindelwald, magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and his wizard friends embark on a covert mission in 1930s Europe, given to them by the Dumbledore family, to stop the rise of the fascist wizard Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen, replacing Johnny Depp from the last two movies.)
Once the film gets to the climactic election scenes and public revelations, the stakes get much higher and the conflict both clearer and more interesting. Unfortunately, all of the conflict before then is expositional and politics-focused.
While the allegory to populism and the rise of an autocrat are clear, the semantics of the Wizarding World will be off-putting to all but the most devoted fans. If you haven’t seen the other two movies before this, there’s nothing of value that will engage you.
Like The Crimes of Grindelwald, the title of this new magical movie is infuriatingly misleading. Not only is very little of the plot focused on the “fantastic beasts” (there are only two-plot driven scenes with a magical creature” but the central conflict has nothing to do with a secret or multiple secrets that any of the Dumbledores are keeping.
One of the brightest spots throughout the film (even in its dullest moments) is supporting player Dan Folger as the non-magical Jacob Kowalski, returning from the previous two films in the series. He gives the best performance of anyone in the serviceable cast.
The character of an ordinary man and his kindness overcoming his fear of the magic and its properties around him is heartfelt, compelling, and often comes with the funniest lines. Aside from Folger, there’s little brightness or vulnerability coming from everyone on screen.
Even worse than most of the reserved demeanour from the main cast, the screenplay (penned by author J. K. Rowling and Steve Kloves) is strangely empty of dialogue, with a majority of the scenes empty of sound or characters talking at an inhumanly slow pace.
The themes of the movie are admirable, and there’s an obvious need around the world to see stories both where aspiring dictators and charlatan politicians are overcome by determined people (and honest leaders) willing to sacrifice so the public can see the damage done when they try to overturn democracy - and criminals are allowed to go free without punishment.
Sadly, The Secrets of Dumbledore is bogged down in trying to get that message across. The story is overstuffed with unmemorable characters and vague descriptions of ideas referenced in the Harry Potter lore but never explained.
Most disappointing of all is that, while this is the third film in what was a planned trilogy, the ending (without spoiling anything) is left open-ended, allowing the possibility of a continued franchise despite the big showdown having already taken place.
The original Fantastic Beasts in 2016 was a fun historical fiction that was actually about the balance of magic in the real world with a noble quest for Newt to rescue his escaped creatures. What the story has evolved into is a drastic turn away from fantasy adventure stories and into a political drama.
Harry Potter’s books and films succeeded because they balanced both of these components. Fantastic Beasts abandoned the the former, and now it’s just a confusing bore.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
5 out of 10
PG, 2hrs 22mins. Fantasy Adventure Drama.
Directed by David Yates.
Starring Eddie Redmayne, Dan Folger, Jude Law, Ezra Miller, Jessica Williams and Mads Mikkelsen.
Now Playing at Film.Ca Cinemas, 5 Drive-In, Cineplex Winston Churchill and Cineplex Oakville & VIP.
