The Secrets of Dumbledore

My wife and I celebrated our fifth date-iversary by doing something both of us love: Seeing a new Harry Potter movie. And I came out of Fantastic Beasts 3 with one thought: I need to see that again. I’ll try to avoid spoilers here. However, fair warning, it’s a movie review, so there’ll be some minor spoilers.

Let’s start with what I had issues with.

Without getting into the controversy surrounding Johnny Depp’s departure from the franchise, we got the recasting of Gellert Grindewald going to Mads Mikkelsen. His version of Grindewald was certainly different. That being said, I enjoyed it. So why am I including this in my “issues” section: honestly, I wish they’d have explained why he had a different face. It could have been an interesting twist with being in hiding.

So… what exactly were the “secrets of Dumbledore”? They gave away the answers of Dumbledore’s sexual orientation and his relationship with Credence so easily, that it didn’t really feel like his secrets were even really part of the plot. I feel like the bigger secret was how he felt about himself… but that’s a post for a later day I think.

One last gripe: I missed Tina. The actress, Katherine Waterston, hasn’t made any statement as to why her appearances in this film were so limited. There’s speculation it has to do with having a young baby at the time of filming, but we still don’t know for sure. Maybe we’ll learn someday. Regardless: I missed Tina. I’m grateful we had her small appearances, especially at the end. But maybe this’ll just make me appreciate her even more next time. 

Now onto what I liked:

This movie had a feel of a Harry Potter movie (duh) meets spy movie. There were so many moving parts in this film that I need to see it again to understand everything. So many twists and turns, with secrets along the way (very few of them Dumbledore’s). And honestly who’d have thought Bunty would have such a big role to play in the mystery?

I enjoyed the new addition to the team: Lally Hicks. I’m not sure if she was added to the story because Tina was absent or if she was always intended to be part of the team in Secrets of Dumbledore. Either way, she was a wonderful addition to the team and I enjoyed her chemistry with Newt and Jacob in particular. 

The movie also just had so many wholesome, emotional moments. I’ll admit, some of them were kinda cheesy. But to see Lally and Dumbledore try to build up Jacob was wonderful (that’s a post for another day once I can rewatch the movie). It was also heartbreaking to see Dumbledore expressing his self-doubt (that could be its own post as well). If you’re a person who struggles with self-doubt like me, I think you’ll really relate to Dumbledore in this movie. We all end up broken from our life experiences, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t worthy.

It was great to return to the Wizarding World and Hogwarts again (seriously, the Hogwarts scenes were awesome). I’ll always take more Potterverse content. The movie seemed to wrap things up well for now, which honestly makes me wonder if this might be the last Fantastic Beasts movie. I certainly hope they finish the last two movies, but I’m grateful for another glimpse into this world regardless.