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FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE
Director: David Yates Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Mads Mikkelsen, Dan Fogler, Callum Turner, Jessica Williams, Alison Sudol, Victoria Yeates, William Nadylam, Richard Coyle, Oliver Masucci, Valerie Pachner, Katherine Waterston MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 2:22 Release Date: 4/15/22 |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | April 13, 2022 J.K. Rowling's initial instincts of how to expand the world, history, and mythology of the wider story of her "Wizarding World" were mostly the right ones. Her screenplay for the first installment in this prequel series gave us an outsider wizard with a specialty in studying magical creatures, so the possibilities for new sights and adventures were only limited by Rowling's imagination. The problem from the start, perhaps, was Rowling's other goal: to flesh out a completely different story, which was hinted at within her seven-novel cycle about a boy who learns he's a wizard and eventually has to fight a great evil. Our new hero had to fit into this grander scheme, whether he or the whimsical nature of his adventures wanted to or not. The conflict of storytelling intent led to a distinct narrative split in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and the general uncertainty of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the much darker and drearier sequel. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore finds this new series at a decided crossroads of purpose. This time around, Rowling receives some writing assistance from Steve Kloves, who adapted the overwhelming majority of the author's novels for the big screen, and the team-up definitely brings a better sense of focus to this third entry—and not much else. It is now almost exclusively about the continuing rise of the evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald (this time played by Mads Mikkelsen, the actor who probably should have had the role from the start). Within that story, there's the plan to undermine his hastening ascent, as well as the villainous wizard's connection to Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law)—later to be the beloved headmaster of Hogwarts but, at this point in history, a beloved professor at the school who is torn between knowing Grindelwald needs to be stopped and being magically bound to their previous romance. As for how Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), the "magi-zoologist" who once was the protagonist of this series, and his group of friends fit into this tale and its newly asserted direction, that's clearly something Rowling, Kloves, and continuing director David Yates are still trying to determine. Since the plot here (save for a climactic moment that finally puts an important figure into the fight) is still a lot of wheel-spinning and not much progression, the filmmakers can keep working on that for as long they can keep this series going. In this one, Newt, his muggle friend Jacob (Dan Fogler), and the zoologist's brother Theseus (Callum Turner) are on a mission from Dumbledore to confound the dark wizard's new power of foresight. By the way, he gains that power by stealing a newborn magical creature from Newt, slitting the baby animal's throat, and looking into the flowing pool of blood, so the filmmakers make it clear they don't care much about the potential fun of their fantasy adventures anymore. Joining them are Hogwarts professor Eulalie Hicks (Jessica Williams, a charming standout) and Yusuf Kama (William Nadylam), who infiltrates Grindelwald's inner circle as a spy. Queenie (Alison Sudol), the mind-reading witch and Jacob's love interest, is still helping the villain, and Credence (Ezra Miller), now aware of his lineage, has been tasked to kill Dumbledore, since Grindelwald can't, on account of an old blood pact the two wizards made when they young and in love. Meanwhile, Grindewald, on his platform of wizard superiority, uses a trip to Germany to go into politics, and since this story takes place between the two world wars, the allegorical implications really don't need to be stated (For better or worse, Rowling and Kloves don't dig into them, either). The resulting plot possesses a lot of politicking, plenty of regretful reminiscences of the past (Dumblebore's love affair with Grindelwald and its tragic end, as well as another secret involving the former's brother, played by Richard Coyle), and a good amount of brooding as these characters wait for a confrontation (A duel between Dumbledore and Credence on the streets of Berlin is a lot of noisy chaos that leads to a visually neat—but logically unclear—trick). As all of that circles around itself, Newt and his gang go about their various pieces of business (a diplomatic mission, causing commotion at a party, and a prison break). While their adventures are transparently pointless (Even the characters admit as much), the more frustrating part is how, amidst all the subplots and world-building, the movie loses sight of what does or could make these characters unique. Newt's knowledge of magical creatures, for example really only comes into play for a throwaway rescue sequence in a dark dungeon, and the almost-complete abandonment of Katherine Waterston's Tina shows how little the first protagonists of this series matter to the central, ongoing thrust of the broader plot. There finally is a better sense of that broader plot here, at least, which makes Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore an improvement on its predecessor. Now, though, the series finds itself at yet another crossroads, because it has become apparent that the characters who should have mattered the most in these stories don't mean particularly much within them. Copyright © 2022 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for some fantasy action/violence)
