Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022) – 3/5

Overall, it’s working out once again

„Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore“ is a 2022 film and a co-production between the UK and United States and this is the third and at this point most recent film from the Fantastic Beasts franchise. As with the previous films and with Harry Potter before that, the director is Emmy nominee David Yates again and also as with all of these the writer is Oscar nominee Steve Kloves. Both are around the age of 60 now, slightly under or slightly over, and they will keep going with the (at least) two remaining Fantastic Beasts films that are going to be released. In terms of writing, of course I must also mention Joanne K. Rowling here. Not necessary to say a lot about her. I am still glad that she is a part of these films and that she was not sacked because of her mainstream-critical comments in recent years. The explanation is simple. No films, no franchise without her. When money comes into play (and there is a gigantic amount attached to these films), then they can ignore some not so liberal views probably. It’s not even as if she is only listed as the writer of the base material here. She is deep in all of this as a key producer. And will also stay so for the next two films. This film comes relatively close to the 150-minute mark, but that is no surprise to anybody I am sure. These films from the Potter universe have always been relatively lengthy. As for the cast and characters, you get back pretty much all the ones you knew from the previous films. Of course, there is major focus now on Dumbledore as you can see from the title and as I kinda like Jude Law, I am not mad about this at all. Lots of screen time for him, even if somehow I still think about Gandalf over Dumbledore first when it comes to old powerful magicians from the fantasy blockbusters. Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne started the franchise as the lead and he also leads this team we see here, kinda recruited them, but he hardly feels as a lead anymore. The opening scene with these magic deer-like creatures cannot change anything about that and same is true about the final conversation with Dumbledore. Fairly telling that afterwards Newt is again just one of many again while the camera stays on Dumbledore leaving through the snow.

Dan Fogler is in it for some of the comedic moments again. While with Potter and LotR I tend to appreciate the closest friends, i.e. Ron and Sam, I cannot do so here. This character is just not doing a lot for me and I surely prefer Newt. Queenie, Theseus and Credence return. Kama and Lally are included for political correctness reasons. However, the one we really need to talk about here is the main antagonist. Grindelwald, that is. He was played by Depp (and Farrell) in the previous films, but due to some unfortunate circumstances from Depp’s personal life he could not continue his role in this kids-friendly movie. I read he got the full amount of money, so he will cope. I did not like Depp too much in the past, but he has grown on me a bit over the years. I am sure I would have appreciated another Grindelwald turn from him. However, as I am a huge Mads Mikkelsen fan, I am happy he was the replacement here. Always a joy to watch this actor and I hope he will return for films four or/and five. Judging from the ending you could say that his character got closure, so it would even make sense if we never see him again, but I kinda doubt it. He’s not dead or anything. I have not read the books or material the next films will be based on, so forgive me for not knowing who/what’s up next. As for this one here, I think the highlight were once more the creatures. They were all great, but I am still madly in love with these platypus-like little beasts. I mean this scene in which he catches the coins instead of his friend was probably the comedic highlight for me overall. Maybe even the best moment of the entire film. Just awesome. But it’s also the others that were good. This little plant creature, of course the deer creatures we see at the very start and then again at the end. These played a vital role here as they were described to be pretty much the purest creatures out there and this is why they played such a big role during this election. I still found it a bit strange. I thought they would just give a recommendation and then the people vote and not that they select the actual winner (cool location though). After all, this was the basic idea mentioned by characters several times that democracy must prevail. Oh and these little „pigeons“(?) on the German streets were also cool.

In general, there was so much magic to this film and the visual effects were constantly present from beginning to end. Also in terms of scarier stuff. Like look at how Grindelwald literally draws a thread of precious memory out of somebody’s head. Haunting moment. I just mentioned Germany already. This film is set in Germany in the 1930s. There you have it. You can find many parallels between the rise of a certain 20th century war criminal and Grindelwald here, such as the idea that he must be stopped democratically, but that is not working out for several reasons. Or seems as if it won’t work out before the twist with the twin creature at the very end. Oh yeah, there are also some horrible creatures in here if we look at the ones, especially the big ones, from the place where Newt’s brother is in jail. Taken right out of some horror film. Anyway, as with the German component, this was of course especially interesting for me (and also for most others in the room) because we come from Berlin. The ways in which the bad guys (also those with no names) are depicted here, with their hats, long coats etc. Was fitting. And Kowalski almost turns into Stauffenberg/Elser at one point you could say. As for the little deer-like creatures, I appreciated the inclusion, but it was a bit strange. They seemed so crucial early on, then they were gone for a long, long time and all of a sudden with the start of the scene with these many suitcases, they were in the middle of it all again somehow. In the end, not only Dumbledore gets the honor to become the leader, but also the female candidate of color (of course) is chosen, the one who helped Kowalski after Grindelwald attacked him. I guess there the entire idea of the people voting for their leader was gone completely then in exchange for feel-good moments. Pity.

In general, I was well-entertained here and the franchise keeps going fine. Another reviewer called it „mediocre to decent“ and I think this is an accurate way to describe this film. I mean cliffhangers are okay too, but here it was also interesting to see that it was all somewhat over and could also be a trilogy, but now we can be really curious about the surprises that await us in the fourth film I guess. Back to the brink. Oh yeah, another thing worth mentioning here is how there is a constant inclusion of people switching sides. Early on, it seems as if Grindelwald managed to turn of the good guys, but in the end, before the end actually, he lost them all to the other side, no matter if we are talking the one I just mentioned, if we are talking Queenie or also if we are talking Credence. They all changed their minds in terms of where they belong. The wedding in the end is okay, but definitely not the emotional highlight it could have been. Or maybe they were not even going for that. I already mentioned on a few occasions throughout my review that I was not too happy with the impact the mainstream had on this film and how it tried to include mainstream-friendly subjects and stuff like that, but the strangest was maybe that we hear on several occasions that Dumbledore was gay and his boyfriend in early years was… Grindelwald? Come on, folks. The idea with this magic spell and item that kept them from fighting one another was alright. Could have been dealt with better too like a lot of the story, but it wasn’t a disappointment either. The solution that the spell did not come into effect and hurt them during the fight because they were attacking and protecting somebody else was witty and I liked it. I also liked their early conversation, especially when Mikkelsen talked about tea. That was really cool again.

When our heroes jumped into that vortex, I liked it too. One of many scenes really where the special effects were so good. I talked about it before. I hope the Oscars remember this film in 2023. There the writers played a bit with our perception too because everybody thought that Kowalski would have the creature in his suitcase after Dumbledore said he doesn’t. Because of how he said it. One scene with Kowalski I did not like too much was his first scene, which was also Lally’s first scene. So strange with the staged attack there to test him. I still don’t understand why Newt would not get him back. Oh right, because they needed Lally (or the actress that portrays Lally) in this film. As for Newt, he gets another special encounter at the end though. Right when we thought his affections might develop into a different direction. But again Rowling loves to play with us it seems in terms of who the male protagonist is going to end up with. There will be a solution to this 100% in the fifth film or maybe already in the fourth. Who knows. They will probably again take their time with the next one. Maybe also for people to forget that this one here did not receive the greatest critics reviews. But I will not be this harsh. I never felt this was an outstanding movie (except the platypus coin scene), but I was also sure from beginning to end that I’d rate it 3 stars out of 5 and give a positive recommendation. It is just too good visually and too fantastic (in the fantasy sense) for a thumbs-down. So yeah, go watch it, although of course you should rather focus on how much you liked the first (and second) instead of on me when making your decision. If you liked them, don’t worry: The quality does not go down, maybe goes slightly up even. Thumbs-up overall.