Phantastische Tierwesen: Dumbledores Geheimnisse

The Fantastic Beast Movies should have been about Newt Scamander and friends going on wild and crazy adventures where they run into or face numerous mythical beasts. Imagine Newt interacting with an infant Fluffy (from HP Sorcerers Stone) or taming a Hungarian Horntail. Unfortunately, the fantastic beasts are overshadowed by the Dumbledore VS Grindelwald conflict. However, the film contained stunning visuals and great character performances; but lacked the tension and pizzaz required for a final battle. Worth a watch but falls short with the fantastic beasts being cast aside for a plot that does not entirely deliver.

Imagine someone that doing a Jigsaw puzzle, it's a complex puzzle, and they have a scissors, and rather than trying to put the puzzle together, they just cut bits off and squeeze them in, that's what I felt about this plot, what there was of one was just very thin, and hung together by very loose strands.

On the plus side, as you'd expect, it is an immaculately produced film, it really does look breathtaking, from the landscapes and costumes to the special effects and beasts, but unfortunately this time around, the visuals can't entirely cover up the cracks.

There are a few times where it's quite moving, but too many times I was left scratching my head wondering what was happening.

I will give credit to both Eddie Redmayne and Jude Law, I thought the pair really did put a huge amount of effort in, and added some degree of credibility, however they deserved to be working with a much better script.

5/10.

Though the style part was enjoyable on it's own; the cinematography, special effects, costumes, score, set design and much of the acting was brilliant. It felt great to lose myself into the feel of the wizarding world again. But the plot and the writing felt unanchored in anything real or relatable. Nothing felt earned. Events just happened without much anticipation or appreciation of their significance, and I didn't feel invested much in any of the plot lines or characters. I'm not expert enough to pinpoint exactly what went wrong, but I know something did.

No surprise that the visuals were breathtaking, some beautiful shots and immersive cinematography. However, there was no depth to the plot. Some lovely character moments.

I am from the Harry Potter generation, I grew up with the books and the movies so there's no denying that I am a massive fan of the saga, so when the first news of prequels came out I was as you might imagine expectant!

I thoroughly enjoyed the first movie, sure it lacks the originality and the magic of the original Potter films but it had one thing I really liked: it didn't force itself to be a part of the former stories while still being engaging and clearly happening in the same "Universe".

This changed a bit when the second movie came around, Crimes of Grindelwald made a clear shift on the story and started to force itself in the "Harry Potter" timeline by navigating through the past of some of the beloved characters present in the original movies.

And now the third.. where things just simply go sideways, not only it tries to explore even further Dumbledore's past, but fails miserably on doing so. There are a lot of points in the story that simply make no sense at all, the most annoying being the fact that most characters on screen have absolutely no influence on the plot, they are extras in their own film. Grindelwald "rise to power" is so forced, senseless and so generic to the point of being cringe.. It almost doesn't feel like a Wizarding World movie, the only reason I won't rate it lower is the creatures are indeed a great addition and being able to see Hogwarts always brings good memories, but that's about it in terms of positive aspects.

The Credence plot is pointless after two movies developing it, the climax of the story feels empty after 140 minutes of waiting, the magic these days is used as generic fantasy movie would depict it with complete disregard of the "Potter rules", people throwing spells here and there without pronouncing them and us (the audience) not understanding what actually is going on.. They took the magic out and inserted the desire for money, it's sad for Potter fans around the world.