Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)

Meh.

And I say that with a disappointed heart. I consider myself a Potterhead and I love the franchise (not so much J.K. Rowling these days). Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was a solid continuation of pre-Harry Potter lore. Newt, Jacob, Queenie, etc. were all fun in the first film. Then the second rolled around and things happened. To be perfectly honest, watching The Secrets of Dumbledore made me realize how little I remembered of The Crimes of Grindelwald. The only thing I remembered is that Johnny Depp played Grindenwald. That's not saying much for the franchise.

And then The Secrets of Dumbledore hit and reviews were generally poor. Of course, being a Potterhead I felt I needed to watch it. I kept putting it off and putting it off and finally got around to it yesterday/today. And now I realize that putting it off was a fine idea because it stunk.

The story, what there is of it, has to do with elections in the magical world. Dumbledore gathers his 'army' and they have to stop the Grindelwald from winning. And that's about it. 2 1/2 hours of...well...whatever.

First I'll give the potential good. Eddie Redmayne is still solid as Newt. Jacob's character is still the heart of the movie but is underutilized. Mads Mikkelsen should have been Grindewald in all three as he is, by far, the most menacing but had little to work with.

Now the bad...So, so, much bad. The story? Stupid and incoherent. Character development? Not in this one! Fantastic Beasts? A couple. Magical politics? Plenty of that. Voting to pick a leader? Nah, let a beast do it. Making me give a crap about anything happening on screen? Nope. They completely dropped the ball on this one. Give me a movie with Newt and Jacob and just have them do things and I'm good. Throw in characters I have no connection to whatsoever and you have this pile of schlock.

No, I won't recommend this or The Crimes of Grindelwald. Instead, if you haven't watched these two films yet, just leave yourself enjoying Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and leave it there.