'Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore' review: An aimless loss of magic

The Fantastic Beasts trilogy comes to a close with a movie that badly needed a touch of magic and maybe some actual fantastic beasts. – Photos: Warner Bros Malaysia

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore

Director: David Yates

Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Callum Turner, Jessica Williams, Katherine Waterston, and Mads Mikkelsen.

What has become of the Wizarding World, and why does it feel like it has lost its magic somwehat?

I’m not just talking about the events that unfold in The Secrets Of Dumbledore, but in real life as well. There seems to be a perpetual fog hanging over the entire franchise currently, partly due to the backlash against creator J.K. Rowling’s controversial anti-transgender views, and the fact that there hasn’t actually been some genuinely exciting or noteworthy films or shows for Harry Potter fans to enjoy since, well, the first Fantastic Beasts movie.

Which brings us to this, the third movie in this somewhat unfocused trilogy.

At the end of the last Fantastic Beasts movie (The Crimes Of Grindelwald), dark wizard Gellen Grindelwald (played here by Mads Mikkelsen, taking over from the fired Johnny Depp) finally amassed his army of followers and declared war against the Muggles. Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) is tasked by Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) to gather a group of wizards and take down Grindelwald.

Redmayne's Newt is still the shining light of the entire franchise.

The group comprises the Newt's assistant Bunty (Victoria Yeates), his Auror brother Theseus (Callum Turner), his good Muggle friend Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), French wizard Yusuf Kama (William Nadylam) from the previous movie, and a new character named Professor Eulalie "Lally" Hicks: (Jessica Williams).

Together, they have to try and foil Grindelwald's plans to convince the Wizarding World to go to war against the Muggles. But Dumbledore has also been keeping secrets, one of which involves his relationship with Grindelwald, and also the powerful Credence (Ezra Miller), who might hold the key to defeating the dark wizard once and for all.

I had so many questions after watching this movie. Like: How did that happen? Why didn't they do THAT instead? How did they get there so quickly? And what was the point of that character doing THAT?

But the most burning question of all was: What was the point of this movie?

The magical trinket

The Secrets Of Dumbledore isn’t a BAD movie, it’s just so aimless to the point where you wonder if the director himself knew what sort of movie he wanted to make.

At one point while discussing their plan to bring down Grindelwald, one character says, ‘Not everyone can know everything’. This seems to be the mantra of not just the characters, but the filmmakers and cast as well, as no one seems to know what is going on here.

Secrets Of Dumbledore is a massive muddle of a movie, with things happening for no reason at all and with seemingly no consequences, and characters coming and go as they please, appearing and disapparating seemingly at a whim. An attempt to add political intrigue merely casts a Confundo spell on the audience, while the action sequences fly by faster than you can say Wingardium Leviosa.

Of the cast, Jude Law is solid enough as the younger Dumbledore, while Mikkelsen makes for a much better Grindelwald than Depp did. However, Miller's Credence has been relegated to almost an afterthought, while Turner and Nadylam are criminally underused to the point where you could leave them out of the movie entirely and not notice a thing.

Earwax-cleaning procedures in the Wizarding World could be quite illuminating.

Thank goodness then, for Redmayne, who is still the franchise's biggest shining light. Having played the awkward hero Newt perfectly throughout all three movies, the biggest regret of this trilogy is that he should have been given a much better story to shine in.

For all it's aimlessness, I did feel a bit sad that the trilogy has ended, mainly because it's hard to see where the Wizarding World will go from here.

Sure, there are a few TV shows and video games coming, but nothing that excites us the way the Harry Potter movies did. It's a shame, because there is still so much potential in the franchise, but no one seems to know how to harness it properly. As such, all we're left is an empty husk of a franchise that has lost too much of its magic to carry on.