Review of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022) by Ebenezer2342 — 16 Apr 2022

I thought this film was the best of the Fantastic Beasts series. While the movie wasn’t a fast paced action film, that’s good! Not all film needs to be as flashy as Fast and Furious. I was in a packed theater and everybody loved it! I think there are a lot of people going into this film wanting it to be bad. I’ll admit, I had low expectations as I didn’t like the last one and I was shocked that this one is now one of my favorite films! I cried, laughed, gasped, and felt every emotion one should during a film. It was a nice change with Mads…I’m hoping they do CGI and put him in place of Depp, because he was perfect for the role.

My only complaints were that they rushed Queenie’s storyline a bit, I felt like she needed to be given more time both on the dark side and more time for her unraveling from the dark side.

Honestly leaving Tina out helped the story immensely as her character is awkward and flat, so seeing her in the end was the perfect amount for me.

I loved the new characters and the development of Jacob within the series. I loved Lolly! She was a great addition—and a nice touch that she was teased in the previous film. It was nice to see the brothers have more time on screen together even if their seen was a tad but silly. I wish the end weren’t as rushed, but I loved the fight between Albus and Grindelwald. I wish that credence had a bit more time in that ending as I think it’s plausible he won’t return in the next film, but I’m so thankful they made the twist to his place in the Dumbledore family.

But most of all, the magic felt fun and exciting, and brought back that OG HP spirit. Between the scoring and the use of subtle Easter eggs this was a great film.

I’m glad they brought on a second writer. JK is a novelist and it shows in her first two screenplays of the series. I feel like they were able to wonderfully adapt her work to a film friendly environment in this iteration.