Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is unmagical and charmless

Warner Bros. welcomes us once again to the wizarding world with the third installment of the Fantastic Beasts franchise.

The storyline for Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore picks up with Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald having a rendezvous, dissecting their romantic entanglement from the past and the blood troth. A political showdown is happening in Bhutan, where the qilin bows down to the person deemed worthy of being a Supreme as followed in the ancient traditions.

Warner Bros. doesn’t play it safe when it comes to the sexual orientation of Dumbledore. Although there’s no explicit intimacy between him and Grindelwald, they are clearly seen as erstwhile partners even during the final battle.

Jude Law’s casting as Dumbledore is perfect. And, while there are many controversies attached to the Fantastic Beasts franchise including the notable fan frenzy concerning Grindelwald being recast due to the domestic abuse allegations lodged against Johnny Depp, Mads Mikkelsen rises to the occasion as Grindelwald.

Mikkelsen plays his part well in the second half of the film and is a highlight of the movie along with Law. However, Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s story should’ve been explored more.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is lackluster

Unfortunately, the other actors didn’t fair so well. There’s been no character development or any kind of progress for Newt Scamander since the first film, he simply becomes a side character in his own movie. But, Eddie Redmayne’s crab dancing sequence is funny.

Ezra Miller’s portrayal of Credence is excruciatingly wooden; he seemed uninterested in his role. Dan Fogler brings some much-needed comic relief as the muggle baker Jacob Kowalski, although his character is written as indolently as possible.

The biggest problem with The Fantastic Beasts franchise is that it feels like a badly written book by J.K. Rowling. Steve Kloves, who did the screenplay for the Harry Potter film series, joins Rowling in the third installment as a co-writer. Unfortunately, Kloves can’t improve the substandard narrative from the first two films.

As much as the studio tries, the nostalgic Harry Potter Easter eggs are simply not enough to hide the overall quality of this ailing franchise. The build-up to the climax of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is dragged out with filler characters and unnecessary subplots.

I wasn’t expecting much from this film, yet it still managed to be underwhelming and deeply disappointing. The movie is definitely better than Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald but that isn’t a particularly high bar to clear.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore hits theaters Friday, April 15.