In the third installment of the Wizarding World franchise, Newt Scamander and his friends try to stop Grindelwald from attaining power.
Four years later, "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore" has arrived, and it's more of a slogan than an event. The long awaited J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World sub-franchise is less loaded with distracting details than its predecessor, but even a more sophisticated plot can't keep the more than two-hour film from feeling like an endurance test.
Some of the tension comes from the behind-the-scenes drama leading up to the film's theatrical release on April 15. Johnny Depp, who plays franchise villain Gellert Grindelwald in the second installment, was embroiled in allegations of domestic abuse made by his ex-wife Amber Heard. Ezra Miller, who plays Credence Barebone, strangles a fan outside a club and, most recently, after attacking people at a bar in Hawaii and allegedly breaking into a random couple's hotel room Facing its own issues. Then there's the series' progenitor, Rowling, who has aggressively reaffirmed her anti-trans views over the past two years.
It's hard not to think about these real-world issues when watching The Secrets of Dumbledore, which draws its major plot points from current political conflicts. While the film's moral concerns still boil down to a battle between good and evil, Rowling, who co-wrote the screenplay with Steve Kloves, uses the upcoming Wizarding World election to raise the stakes of this conflict. To be good is to fight for the preservation of democracy, "doing what is right is not easy," as Albus Dumbledore (played by Jude Law) explains at one point in the film. To be evil is to do the opposite.
Dumbledore's Mystery opens with a cold encounter between Dumbledore and Grindelwald (now played by Mads Mikkelsen), the embodiment of this moral conflict. They meet in a frosty, almost palatial cafe, where seemingly unknown non-magic people surround them. Over tea, two warring and heartbroken magicians review their past and seek revenge for the betrayal. Grindelwald's commitment to dominate the wizarding world and start wars with non-magic people leaves Dumbledore in a difficult position. The future headmaster of Hogwarts must stop his nemesis and ex-lover, but a pact made decades ago prevents the two from directly fighting each other.
That's where Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), the series' quirky wizard, comes in. Dumbledore enlisted Newt to help build a team that would defeat Grindelwald. The ragtag team is a familiar group composed entirely of characters from previous installments: Newt's assistant Bunty (Victoria Yates), his brother Theseus (Callum Turner), his friend and mogul baker Jacob (Dan Fogler), Leta Lestrange's Brother Joseph Kam (William Nadilam) and Charms professor Yuli "Lally" Hicks (Jessica Williams).
They devise a plan with many moving parts, their goal being to confuse Grindelwald, who may be looking into the immediate future. If the group can outwit the sharp wizard, then, Dumbledore hopes, they'll stand a chance at saving the world. The confusing plan requires that the skeptical team, driven by a reluctant Newt, trust each other. Similar confidence is needed for audiences, who must be confident two installments later that this third film will inspire confidence in a volatile series.
Compared to the previous two movies, Secret of Dumbledore feels more like a Harry Potter movie than a Fantastic Beasts movie. While some magical creatures do appear—one also central to Dumbledore and Grindelwald's plans—they are by no means anchored. The installment revolves around Dumbledore, a more interesting character than the series' alleged protagonist, Newt. That change is focused on the film's narrative, but it doesn't do much for those of us trying to figure out the purpose of the series.
Although Dumbledore's mysteries are not without its charms. Director David Yates (who has directed the entirety of the four Potter films and Fantastic Beasts to date) returns with a formidable crew that includes directors of photography George Richmond, production designers Stuart Craig and Neil Lamont, editors Mark Day, costume designer Colleen Atwood. and composer James. Newton Howard to recreate the rich, textured wizarding world. The battle scenes - slow and shot from different angles - add tension and show off the franchise's technical accuracy and prowess. The magical creatures are meticulously created and the world inside Newt's briefcase is dazzling.
As Newt and his friends travel to the Wizarding World—a journey that takes them from New York and Berlin to Bhutan—they understand Grindelwald's influence and the allure of his vision. (His promise that wizards under his reign would be able to live and love Jacob's love, Queenie, played by Alison Sudol, brought to the dark side in the last film.)
As Grindelwald organizes a campaign to become president of the International Confederation of Wizards, he transforms into a fascist figure whose extroverted stance and hateful rhetorical touch and embrace a frustrated mass. But it's hard to buy the screenplay by Rowling and Kloves, which lives on the surface of this metaphor. An audience hooked to the narrative's equanimity to real life might struggle to transcend the irony of a writer like Rowling, given her recent public comments to messages about humanity, love, and radical acceptance.
If there is a reason for the existence of Dumbledore's mystery, it is probably as evidence of his handling of disillusionment. When its production is mired in controversy and its producers often endorse dangerously short-sighted ideas, it's hard to remain enamored by the Wizarding World. This inevitably affected the work's perceptions, revealing, at least to this critic, how obsessed these films are with binaries – good and evil, poor and rich, love and hate, light and dark. But life, like storytelling, is far more complicated, and it's a lesson the franchise would be wise to embrace.