The Secrets of Dumbledore’ Is Fantastic Beasts

The third ‘Beasts’ film arrived to little fanfare this weekend, and with good reason. Now, after two lackluster offerings in a row, Warner Bros. has a decision to make about the fate of the franchise. The theater where I saw Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore had a problem. Throughout all of the pre-film rigmarole—commercials and trivia, some previews and announcements—the screen didn’t work. All nine of us present in the audience on opening night could hear the advertisements, but not see them. By the start of the feature presentation, the visuals had flickered on, so my viewing experience for the third Beasts film was not compromised. But I’m not sure how much I would have missed had the screen remained dark.

That might seem an overly harsh assessment of a movie that eclipses its predecessor in quality—though given the disorienting mess that was 2018’s Crimes of Grindelwald, that’s not a high bar to clear. But the Beasts prequel series is now more than halfway over, and it still lacks any sort of forward momentum or propulsive reason to continue. After this latest offering, it’s clear the series is at war with itself, on many fronts: the second and third movies over where the plot should go; the “Fantastic Beasts” half and the “Crimes of Grindelwald/Secrets of Dumbledore” half over what kind of tone and characters should take center stage; and the creator, studio, and fandom over whether it’s even worth trying to press on. To that final point, a Variety report last week revealed that inside Warner Bros., “there’s a growing sense the prequel series is no longer worth” the production headaches, and that the studio will wait to see how The Secrets of Dumbledore performs before giving the go-ahead to more Beasts movies. Based on the early returns—just a 49 percent rating from Rotten Tomatoes and a series-low $43 million in domestic box office returns from opening weekend—that go-ahead might never come. This sort of narrative whiplash is redolent of all the jarring reversals in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, a movie so misguided that it killed its franchise’s films for the time being. At least Star Wars had an excuse for its tug-of-war, as it switched directors and writers between films. (I can’t believe Secrets has me defending Rise of Skywalker by way of comparison.) The Beasts films are all author J.K. Rowling’s creations, yet they still can’t tell a proper story without doubling back on themselves more than they press forward.

That mismatch is exacerbated by the hyper-serialized nature of this story, as compared to the core Potter series. There, Harry repeatedly stops Voldemort as part of a broader battle, but each book (and all of the movies until the two-part Deathly Hallows) also has its own contained story with a clear beginning and end—as he defeats Quirrell, closes the Chamber of Secrets, and so on. Secrets, though, like Crimes before it, lacks that level of independent story. To the extent that Secrets has an open-and-closed through line at all, it concerns a character we don’t know winning an election we never previously cared about in a place we didn’t know existed until at least 90 minutes in. Another unflattering Star Wars comparison rises here: Not since Chancellor Palpatine wrested control of the Galactic Senate has a Byzantine electoral process been so vital to a mega prequel franchise. The second of the series’ internal wars relates to the characters and events on which it focuses. Disparate elements of Secrets shine, such as the chemistry between Jude Law’s Dumbledore and Mads Mikkelsen’s recast Grindelwald, the latter a more grounded rendition after Johnny Depp’s more cartoonish portrayal. And the beasts, as always, are truly fantastic: The qilin was tremendously cute, and the crab-esque creatures added a necessary dose of whimsy to a broadly brooding film. But they were the only new animals of note—a far cry from the first film, which showcased a host of inventive creatures inside Newt’s suitcase in what remains the series’ best scene.

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