Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore [DVD] [2022]

This movie is basically Wizard Chess: International Spy Edition. Dumbledore’s got secrets, Grindelwald’s got eyeliner, and Newt’s still out here dancing with magical crabs like it’s a normal Tuesday.Is the plot a little confusing? Yes.Do I fully understand the wizard politics? Not at all.Did I still enjoy the heck out of it? Absolutely.Jude Law nails young Dumbledore, the creatures are weird and wonderful (shoutout to the baby Qilins!), and somehow this film makes awkward silence feel magical.Perfect for fans of wands, suits, and unspoken emotional trauma.

I enjoyed Harry Potter. I enjoyed this series as well. If you've not watched. You should see it, you might like it.

I've read several reviews which pan the movie for confusion and lack of plot. I have to disagree. I didn't find it confusing at all, and there is no less plot than in many other action movies of the last 40-50 years which are rated much higher (Indiana Jones and Marvel franchises spring to mind here). Another complaint seems to be a dislike for Mads Mikkelsen as Grindelwald. Many prefer Johnny Depp's portrayal. While the two actors gave very different performances, both are well-done. Mads Mikkelsen's was less over-the-top comic book and more subtle and coldly villainous. A big thumbs up for the performances of Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, and Dan Fogler. Another reviewer called Jude Law the best of the actors to portray Albus Dumbledore. I don't know if I'd rank him higher than Richard Harris, but his performance is certainly equal to Harris' and far superior to Michael Gambon's. The effects were well done and the fantastic scenes they created were a treat for the eyes.

Love this

Good movie. Held my attention. Lots of good sorcery! The good guys against a real villain........

To be fair, I somehow made it through life without watching the original Harry Potter franchise until recently, so Fantastic Beasts had been my introduction to the Wizarding World (horrified gasps from the audience, I know). With this in mind, I approached the story not as a way to milk the Wizarding World for every penny it could get due to Potter's story being wrapped up, but as an original story unto itself that happened to take place in the past of Harry's world. Each film told a story of a world on the brink of war, not only in the human realm but in the wizarding world as well, with every wizard and witch present trying their best to stop the inevitable from happening while trying to juggle their societal duties in the meantime, with Newt searching for fantastic beasts and Tina trying to keep her place within the Magical Congress of the U.S.A. as an auror while voicing her concerns for an ever-growing presence of darkness in her country, a worry that becomes evident when Grindelwald appears and wrecks chaos through his radical approach to wizarding politics and cunning/charming personality.-----When I watched 'Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,' I expected the same approach to each character and their stories as individuals spun into unfortunate circumstances, yet it seems like all eyes and actions were set on Grindelwald, with no explanation for why he's literally a different person, with the same issue appearing in the character of Yusuf Kama, who is also played by a different actor. Though the legal issues surrounding Johnny Depp at the time of the change were understandable outside of the film, there was no effort to explain away the obvious change between Grindelwald and Kama, making the rest of the characters in the film seem more oblivious than anything, which seemed to be a theme that played out throughout the rest of the film's story. The unfortunate accident between Dumbledore, his brother, and Grindelwald costing the life of his sister, the oversight of the sacred deer having twins, the lack of Tina playing any role in the story despite being one of the most concerned about Grindelwald's presence in wizarding politics, how Kuma could just 'forget' his sister and then suddenly 'haha, just kidding, I didn't forget,' the list goes on.-----The biggest blunder I have with this film is the approach to romance, particularly between Grindelwald and Dumbledore. There is no evidence of how powerful their love was for one another, no flashbacks to them being in love, no flashes of them overcoming ridicule and animosity from other wizards in the very homophobic time period they were in, NOTHING. The few times this 'romance' was discussed was through Dumbledore reminiscing of their choice to run away together and killing his sister on accident over the choice angering his brother and the introduction scene in the restaurant that was a dream, making the forbidden romance seemingly dead in the water, and making the blood pact seem pointless aside from being an unnecessary plot device for why Dumbledore can't do more to aid Newt and friends, which is ALSO circumvented when Dumbledore continuously helps out in numerous ways of defying Grindelwald, an act (and even the mere thought of acting on it) that should've strangled Dumbledore to death repeatedly if the story paid attention to itself.-----Overall, the film is a fun spectacle of special effects and a deep dive into wizardry politics with multiple parties trying to thwart each other's efforts of seizing the reigns of the wizarding world, but the title romance is skin deep and arbitrary to the story, something that seems to be against the point of the film itself. This love is supposed to be seen as a dark secret - something Grindelwald could use against Dumbledore as a weakness, yet every character (including Dumbledore and Grindelwald) seems to brush it off as 'Oh well, let's stop Grindelwald and not bring up that supposed unstoppable fling you had for him' as soon as Dumbledore reveals his secret to the cast of protagonists. This nonchalant approach to this 'terrifying secret' renders it practically useless and pointless to bring up in the first place, with the only mention of it after the reveal being at the end as Grindelwald asks 'Who will love you now, Dumbledore?' rather boringly when the pact breaks, freeing Dumbledore. 4/10 Wands, 3/5 Stars.

If you’ve watched Harry Potter too many times, this will scratch your itch.

I loved all three of the Fantastic Beasts movies, but this one might be my favorite. I know a lot of fans were upset by the replacement of Johnny Depp with Mads Mikkelsen as Grindelwald, but I think that Mikkelsen's Grindelwald made a more believable love match with Jude Law's Dumbledore than Depp's Grindelwald did. Depp is a stellar actor, but his Grindelwald was just too weird for me---probably due to those eyes! The fact that they ended the series with Secrets of Dumbledore has been intensely disappointing to me because there were too many important elements left unresolved. I have watched all three of these movies many times; they are my favorites so far of any of the Wizarding World movies.