Animais Fantásticos: Os Segredos de Dumbledore

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.

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.

The Harry Potter books achieved so much success because a dedicated writer thought about the story for years and the result, imperfect as it was, became beloved by millions of people as the effort showed. This film is perfect, though, a total and complete mess, written by people who can never come up with more than an elevator pitch and the crave for a big payout. The movie uses a plot that purposefully makes no sense, built on a previous film that no one remembers and manages to cement Dumbledore as a manipulative asshole whose value for humanity is that he looks nice compared to the genocidal maniacs he fights against. But he's gay, so that's fine.

It gets worse, though. So many things in the film not only not make sense, but contradict lore from the books. The film is called Fantastic Beasts, but really it's just one and it doesn't do much except for the ending. The magical world of wizards is now angry, political, divided and warlike, because that's what Americans are like, obliterating the elegant traditionalist Britishness of the books. Magic is only used to show off, fight or destroy now.

The more I think about it, the angrier I become, which is not really what I want or need. My advice is to skip this film completely. Too bad, too, because Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Dan Fogler and Mads Mikkelsen did a great job as actors. Alas, the material they had to work with was utter garbage.

I'm sorry...this may be controversial, Johnny Depp made the character of Grindelwald come to life. The film wasn't the same without him playing the role. Bring Johnny back, or retire the series. Your replacement choice was poor at best. And so sad, Eddie Redmayne is one of my favorite actors, and he was wonderful. Don't ruin your franchise with cancel culture, bring back the real Grindelwald.

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.