Long-lasting gaze, improbable love memories, enthusiastic passion for afternoon tea in a luxurious environment, Fantastic beasts: Secrets of dumbledore's opening scene is a highlight. This is mainly because of the actors featured in it Jude Law and Mads Mikkelsen are both handsome men giving the best on-screen presence and subtle emotions at any given moment. Even though there are a few thrills scattered down the way, It is all downhill after the opening scene.
These Fantastic beasts movies are not just good, they are very okay-ish when compared to the Harry Potter movies. The secrets of Dumbledore is a far better movie when compared to its predecessor (Crimes of Grindlewald) and was much on par with the fun-filled, whimsical first installment (Fantastic beasts and where to find them). Albeit, each movie reminds us how unnecessary and inferior this spin-off series is.
At the core admist all the confusion and chaos, this movie is about election rigging. Therefore if one is looking for a fantasy filled world to escape the reality, it is better to look else where. The titular characters are adorable, acting performances are top-notch but the core theme and main plot both are so boring. The story revolves around a small deer like creature named Qilin, which have an ability to choose the rightious, pure hearted person to lead the wizard world and efforts of Grindlewald trying to win the election by rigging the creature and Dumbledore and his team trying to stop this from happening. This movie has weightier matters which is clumsyly mediated between large action set pieces and lighthearted comedy.
Newt Schamander (Eddie Redmayne), who is a magizoologist is nothing but just a cog in the plans devosed Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) against Gellert Gindlewald (Mads Mikkelsen, played by Johnny Depp in the previous installment) and his plans to win the election to become the leader of wizards and eradicate the muggles (humans) completely. There is a side plot involving Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller) which is continued storyline from the previous films but it is eventually sidelined slowly untill the last act. The so called “Secrets” of Dumbledore majorly involves Dumbledore and Grindlewald but also involves Credence and Dumbledore's brother Aberforth Dumbledore.
The set pieces and the visuals (especially towards the end of the first act and in the third act) are amazing and spellbounding which makes this movie a beautiful wonder to watch. But the problem is with the main plot. The so called fans of Potter-verse might enjoy this movie but to others it is just a boring flick with great acting talent.
