Enough Magic and Secrets To Return To The Wizarding World (Fantastic Beasts and The Secrets of Dumbledore)

Potterheads Rejoice! It's time to return to the Wizarding World as the secrets of one of the most famous wizads are finally revealed. After the first sequel where J.K. Rowling brought up so many new plotlines and a boatload of questions that confused her plethora of fans, there was some worry about whether the rest of the franchise would make it or ruin the 'magic' or that's how everyone summed it up, despite the Johnny Depp legal issues and Rowling's own controversy with transphobia. 

The third installment of the Fantastic Beasts brings back Newt, Dumbledore, and the gang for yet another adventure against the notorious Gellert Grindelwald in furthering his plan to heed war between the magical and muggle worlds. Taking place a year later (or 3 years later according to reports. Just something to confuse you before entering the cinema) after Crimes of Grindelwald, this sequel bids itself as a heist film within the Harry Potter universe. But the real question is, does the new narrative provide a better experience for the longtime fans?

It is a sure thing to deem this Beasts outing to be an improvement after Crimes of Grindelwald. One thing is for certain is that audiences who did not enjoy Crimes for its politicism will be disappointed once again with an impending election being one of the core subplots. The rest of the narrative, however, may fare much more whimsical or better yet, magical enough, making it a better-suited film set in the Wizarding World. 

The politics of the film is still the stem displeaser of the franchise. Secrets delve deep into politics as Grindelwald plans to make himself a candidate for the Confederation of Wizards or something along the lines of that to start his war with the muggles. You can tell that they tried to dumb down this storyline after how it was received in Crimes. As important as this storyline seems to be, sidelining it to be a 50/50 state is probably why this sequel is being perceived better. One lesson learned, I suppose. 

Luckily there are plenty of reasons why this sequel works. One of them involves the Dumbledore of it all. Not only does Secrets answer mysteries we've been cracking our heads for since 2018 but also manages to answer questions fans have been wondering about since the release of the Deathly Hallows book, confirming that there was much more to learn about the Dumbledore family, whether it was about Albus' deceased sister or Albus' friendship with Grindelwald. Another reason would be that this had a better flow when it came to referencing and calling back to Potter threads as opposed to the predecessors. Moreover, it takes itself less seriously, allowing the audience to have fun with the magic and the characters. Most importantly this time around, Secrets script also finally lives up to the franchise's namesake, by introducing a lot more creatures with one of them being the focus of the narrative from beginning to end while providing a bigger role for the Bowtruckle and the Niffler. 

When it comes to bigger roles, a lot of the side characters from previous movies were given much more to do. Bunty, Newt's Mazoologist assistant, Bunty was a key character in the heist event and Jacob Kowalski was the muggle point of view of the magical world, marking him to be the only fully relatable character amongst the audience. We are introduced to a new player with Jessica William's Lally Hicks, a teacher from the American Wizarding school, Illvermony, who happens to be one of the highlights of the movie with her wit and confidence. She also happens to be a former classmate of Tina Goldstein's. Sadly, Tina doesn't fully make an appearance in this film the way she did in the previous installments. Queenie is underused but this is probably because Rowling had no use for her other than be a pawn for Grindelwald while also proving no point to the dark turn she took in the previous film. 

The real stars of this film were Jude Law and Mads Mikkelsen. Mikkelsen replaces Depp as Grindelwald and it is unfortunately really easy to admit that he is a much better Grindelwald than Depp was. With this said, I am not saying that Depp was miscast, but it is just really hard to imagine him having any kind of connection with Law the way Mikkelsen portrayed in this film. Every time the two were onscreen, it is hard to deny the pain, the love, or anything these characters shared and lost within their respective backstories. Malaysian cinemas do manage to censor every time Albus says the word 'love' when it involves him and Grindelwald, it is still pretty obvious these two were Mads for each other. See what I did there?

There's nothing much to say about Newt or Credence this time around for they were sidelined also as pawns for Dumbledore and Grindelwald's sake. This is probably due to this movie focusing on the latter rather than the former. With the Credence mystery solved, I think it's time we moved back to Tina and Newt's final days of courting and set up the final battle between Albus and Gellert in the midst of World War II instead of leaving us high and dry.

Secrets of Dumbledore is not perfect but it is good enough to get audiences excited for what might come. Unfortunately, the new Warner deal with Discovery and the need to wait to see how Secrets does at the box office could bring about a delay or more possibly cancel the franchise. With this drama in mind,  they should have ended the franchise with this installment. The movie could have been a bit longer and featured the final battle between the two. It had managed to tie up a lot of loose ends but for the sake of the plan of having two more sequels up its belt, we were left with a few tiny open-ended plotlines. Whether a break is needed or not, Secrets should please fans well enough to at least get the franchise's 'magic' once again.