User Reviews

No surprise that the visuals were breathtaking, some beautiful shots and immersive cinematography. However, there was no depth to the plot. Some lovely character moments.

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.

Though the style part was enjoyable on it's own; the cinematography, special effects, costumes, score, set design and much of the acting was brilliant. It felt great to lose myself into the feel of the wizarding world again. But the plot and the writing felt unanchored in anything real or relatable. Nothing felt earned. Events just happened without much anticipation or appreciation of their significance, and I didn't feel invested much in any of the plot lines or characters. I'm not expert enough to pinpoint exactly what went wrong, but I know something did.

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 Secrets of Dumbledore is convoluted by inconsequential plotlines and redundant characters. It's so unfocused, it doesn't have a consistent tone or protagonist. The film centers around wizarding politics, but doesn't elaborate on them. This shrinks the Potterverse and satisfies nobody. Meanwhile, Redmayne and Law's protagonist duet is equally unsatisfying. Oddly, no character feels essential (besides Grindelwald) and action sequences don't progress the story. Ultimately, the movie is overstuffed and develops nothing. Mikkelsen and Fogler excel in their limited roles, but they're sparse in this jumble. Without streamlining, The Secrets of Dumbledore is emotionally uninspired.

Technically, The Secrets of Dumbledore is disappointing. First, the effects are overdone. Earlier action is compelling, but the finale is undercut by excessive CGI. Plus, the production design in that final act feels empty. Squandering the union of fantasy and period dressings, the climax is woefully shallow. Furthermore, the editing is bloated and arbitrary because scenes don't influence one another. Lastly, the imagery is drab due to needlessly muted colors and plain framing. The solid music, impressive cast, and meaningful sound can only go so far. Overall, The Secrets of Dumbledore might please some, but is unlikely to leave an impression.

Writing: 5/10 Direction: 5/10 Cinematography: 6/10 Acting: 7/10 Editing: 5/10 Sound: 8/10 Score/Soundtrack: 7/10 Production Design: 6/10 Casting: 8/10 Effects: 6/10

Overall Score: 6.3/10.

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.

It's sometimes funny and often creative, and it's an improvement over its predecessor by default, simply because rather than only 5% of the plot being consequential, about 30% of the plot is consequential.

In fact, the best thing I can say about this "film" is that you can go to the bathroom during it without worrying about missing something; there's hardly anything important to miss.

Just like the last movie, this has a screenplay that desperately tries to find reasons to keep these characters in the story, and it fails spectacularly. 90% of the characters could be missing from the story, or replaced with planks of wood, and not a single thing of note would change.

The story just consist of characters wandering around and either chilling in the background or completing a task that has absolutely no bearing on the main conflict. It's a two and a half hour movie that should be an hour long.

Even though the magic is creative, it's so inconsistent and so confusing in how it works that it's frustrating to watch rather than awe-inspiring.

In fact, most of the things that happen in the movie don't make any sense. They rely on characters knowing things that they couldn't possibly have known. They rely on people acting in ways that are so unfathomably stupid and are not in line with who they were shown to be earlier in these three movies. It's a story in which not a single plot point can withstand the slightest amount of logical scrutiny.

The writing is so insultingly idiotic that at one point in the film, when a character questions a plot point that doesn't make any sense, Dumbledore actually says "Let's call it fate," ignoring the question entirely.

That was JK Rowling saying to her stupid mob of gullible fans, "Screw you. I don't even have to try anymore. Nothing has to add up or be consistent. You'll watch it and love it anyway."

Lastly, this movie has ZERO character development. Nobody learns anything, nobody does anything special, nobody even IS anything. It's a story populated by husks of human beings, and none of them are even remotely relatable or understandable. In fact, most of them are briefly shown and then forgotten about until the end of the movie.

Just as in "Crimes of Grindlewald," Grindlewald hardly committed any crimes, in "Secrets of Dumbledore," Dumbledore only has one secret, and it doesn't even have any bearing on the story. How fitting. It's false, just like this movie. It's barely a movie.

Stop making these, please.

"Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore" is the third movie of the Fantastic Beasts franchise in which we watch Albus Dumbledore trying to stop Grindelwald of eliminating all Muggles. Newt Scamander and his friends help Dumbledore as they can.

I liked this movie more than the previous two because it combined very well the great interpretations of the cast with a nice closure of the franchise. The direction which was made by David Yates was very good and his exceptional job was obvious through the whole duration of the film. The interpretations of Jude Law who played as Albus Dumbledore, Mads Mikkelsen who played as Gellert Grindelwald, Eddie Redmayne who played as Newt Scamander and Dan Fogler who played as Jacob Kowalski were very good. Regarding the selection of Mads Mikkelsen as Gellert Grindelwald I believe it was the best choice possible and he did an exceptional job. To sum up, I have to say that "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore" is a nice movie and I am sure that if you have already watched the previous two movies of the franchise I am sure you will enjoy this one, too.

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 was a big fan of the first one. Loved the second one. This one I thought was great. This series is a great expansion of the original HP movies. The story is good and moves, great pacing. The special effects are amazing in this one. All of the movies in this series look amazing.

In pleasing a result, the third entry into the Fantastic Beasts franchise (a franchise that seemingly exists with support but no dedicated fanbase or huge fanfare) is a marked improvement on the dire misstep that was 2018's The Crimes of Grindelwald, even if Harry Potter veteran director David Yates still can't find the real magic to enliven this wizarding world property to a level that would have it competing in the same space as the beloved films that came before this J. K Rowling property.

Becoming less and less about the titular beasts that started this Eddie Redmayne lead adventure all the way back in 2016 and more about trying to draw in extra audience engagement and enthusiasm by bringing back known staples such as Hogwarts and a much more prevalent Albus Dumbledore into this latest outing, you can see the battle raging between Fantastic Beasts trying to figure out exactly what it is and who its for and its a battle that isn't won clearly by the conclusion of this third outing, making it a sometimes frustratingly cold experience that still manages to entertain to decent degree.

Without a clear identity or even a character we can truly call our own, with Redmayne's Newt Scamander getting to do his awkward shtick here once more but feeling more like a bystander to whats going on around him, with new addition Mads Mikkelsen's Grindelwald growing in power and his old acquaintance Dumbledore trying to assemble a crack team to help thwart his plans, Fantastic Beasts is hamstrung by its inability to focus its attention into a specific story arc or character journey, with its drab grey and gloomy sets, dark themes and heavy topics feeling rather unmagical for a film that potentially could've finally shed the shackles of past expectations to really let fly with some inventiveness and spark.

There are snippets of such things here, a prison escape and some brief moments spent back in the halls of Hogwarts but for a majority of the films two hour plus runtime there's not a whole lot of memorable moments delivered in Yates film, which is by no means offensively bad or incoherent like much of Crimes of Grindelwald was but it still makes you wish someone could take hold of this property and turn it into the possibly great series it could be, something that is unlikely now with two films left to come.

While not inspiring much jaw-dropping or magical chills, there's still an undeniable cinematic goodness to Rowling's magic filled universe and there is a feeling here that with Dumbledore building his ragtag group of foot soldiers and with Mikkelsen giving Grindelwald a significant amount of menace and unnerving energy, there's hope yet still that the final chapters of Rowling's mid-tier and seemingly unloved property can still work to a level that will ensure we walk away from the Fantastic Beasts series indifferent in ways but not upset at what's been done to our beloved world of wizards, witches and muggles (and the odd beast or two).

Final Say -

Still far removed from even the lesser of the Harry Potter films, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is a small step back in the right direction following the crimes of the last entry and while its still not awe-inspiring by any stretch of the imagination, its a passable diversion of anyone with a passing interest in the Harry Potter cannon.

3 crab walks out of 5

For more reviews check out Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys)

Was the third installment in the Fantastic Beast "universe" a succes?

Well, the main storyline was okey but the rest of it was kinda unimportant and not that interesting.. Also like i had with the previous two installments was the lack of intensity and emotions in the action scenes.

And after 3 completed movie i still can't find my connection with most of the characters especially the main one's.

The "recasting" of Johnny Depp was a huge mistake for the development of Grindelwald's character!

One of the outstanding parts were the CGi and special effects so enjoyable and well created.

Also the Harry Potter references were nice, lovely and not overdone It's a overall good movie but not one to rewatch weekly like the other two, it's pretty predictable with more forgettable moments than remembered once's.

I really wanted to like it more but it just didn't really worked out for me...

LIKES:

The Creatures: For the creatures we actually get to see, Fantastic Beasts has made some very cute and endearing merchandising pieces for us to enjoy. The third installment brings with it a small mixture of interested critters for you to enjoy, while still giving you some shots of the loveable lunks in Newt's bag. Props to those whose imaginations can craft such wonderful monsters and beasts, because they definitely belong in Rowling's world.

The Humor: There is plenty of laughs to share in this movie, as the rag tag bunch of wizards try to take on insurmountable odds to save the world from the clever wizard villain. Kowalski's lines are stellar, that comedic punch and delivery to really make you laugh in your seats, and is fitting with most of the Harry Potter style of comedy. Newt's awkwardness works to varying degrees of situational and awkward delivery you love. Throw in some wit from Dumbledore, the animals having some fun laughs, and a few other characters, and you get some good use of the laugh genre to make your catchphrase for a bit. This helps lighten the mood for the darker installment and keeps us towards the balance.

The Darker Aspects: Harry Potter's brilliance is knowing when to start transitioning into the less wonderful side of Wizarding. This movie has started that turn, and helps add some edge, ambiance, and drama to the film to keep you engaged in the characters. Dumbledore's secrets, alongside Grindelwald's, are going down the avenue of the latter books. It works well to pull the spice back in, and put the stakes that Harry Potter's world is famous for. It makes for an engaging story with lots of character pieces to move around and explore, if only done a little better.

Dumbledore's character: Jude Law does well to play younger Albus and I've enjoyed his performance very much in the layering and exploration of his past. However, the movie really dives more into the hidden depths of his inner character and the tale works quite well for me in this installment. By far the strongest piece of the story for me, this subplot, or is it main plot, is the most engaging piece of the puzzle and I love the connections, ties, and extra layers that Rowling has done for her legendary character.

Acting: I'd love to go into all the actors and what they accomplished but you and I both know that the performances of these characters are expert and fine-tuned. Redmayne still knocks the big hearted, compassionate, and awkward Magi-Zoologist out of the park, and is the most balanced character of the bunch in my opinion. Jude Law I've mentioned is wonderful in his portrayal of Albus, witty, wise, riddle spitting, and compassionate to make the already respectable wizard, even cooler. Miller is, okay, but I've not liked his character's direction and think his talents better spent somewhere else than this messy character we are getting. As for the rest of the bunch, varying degrees of awesomeness are there, and such great chemistry, but alas, we must move on to other things.

The Music: A powerful storytelling device in this movie, the score is gorgeous and the same magnitude we fell in love with all those years ago. Fantastic Beast's third installment is filled to the brim with the orchestra work we love, and the engaging tracks all hold so much emotional stakes in this world again. You've got fire, you've got sadness, you've got intrigue, and the familiar ambience of the world revealing itself is all packed into this film. It's that extra level we take advantage of, but for me, this is a higher quality of the film that is consistent in its application through the nearly 150 minute run time.

The Visuals: By far the best part of the movie for me, Warner Bros. Money is utilized well in this film and how they can make everything looks so smooth, polished, and realistic. The creatures of course have their moments, and look as real as they are going to with the visuals, with only the bigger blokes having too much CGI look to it. When the settings and costumes arise, I'm impressed more by just how much they accomplish in their blend of computers and live set location filming, really capturing the culture and mood of the areas. Then you get to the magic and so many spells and interactions with the environment are stellar as they make liquids move, storms erupt, and so many other things come to life. I've always loved the visual telling of this universe, and the updated technology continues to be utilized well to make advanced level magic feuds and repairs become immersive and mystical.

DISLIKES: Character Utilization: We've seen this in big world films that were limitless in books, but limited in films. The world is growing a little too big right now for the films to balance characters out, and given struggles with filming and other aspects, the characters aren't quite as utilized, strong, or connected as the first installment. There are those that are knocks out of the park, but there are others that really feel limited and almost pointless in their inclusion, outside of new Pottermore like stories to come. Several of the antagonistic characters, Ezra Miller's character on part, and even some other fan favorites are surprisingly low in this movie, and that's a bit disappointing for someone like me.

The Incomplete Feeling Of The Story: We know Harry Potter has always been a series, but each book/film accomplished the goal of being a contained book that led you to the next. Like the last film, this series feels like one big book presented in smaller pieces, with each part trying to be the next brick to the complete project. While this overarching story is nice, the issues come from the balance and spreading of the characters and how unbalanced it actually feels. Secrets of Dumbledore seems very chaotic, pieces of the story missing and details sort of inconsistently being presented that are not as enjoyable as the previous arc of this world. In addition, this movie could have ended this series here and now, which I kind of wish it did or at least not dragged out some other plot points that are pretty much done right now for me. Still, the movie does feel like the mid-point climax of a Rowling book at times, but feels it's lacking the magic.

The Action: Potter again got it right in the gradual elevation and use of the spells, though the last movie did need some work. In here, I've mentioned some of the magic is brilliant in the plans of Dumbledore, with the visuals being the WOW factor. However, the action and battling component... kind of stinks compared to the others. A few moments are awesome, seeing the spells and strategy behind it, but there are others that are very limited and boring, over in a flash leading to more symbolic and less climactic fights that I particularly enjoy. You can have both in my opinion, but the climactic finish was more comical and dramatic, than exciting and on the edge of my seat.

The Pace Almost my least favorite thing about the movie, Fantastic Beasts Three is a not the best paced movie of the bunch. It's slow at many parts, drawn out lines and images I don't want to get stuck on as they try to pull the tension and realism to the forefront. Still, the slowness is a little too much for me and without the action having enough time to relieve it from us, it makes the movie a bit boring. Then you throw how fast, patchy and chaotic the plan(s) come out in, alongside the time spent in each setting, and the movie feels choppy and hastily pieced together, which matches production issue stories. As such, the complete feeling again feels to be missing, and the pace really amplified that for me.

The Darkness: I can handle a lot of dark things when it comes to movies and stories, but animal cruelty is not one of them. The first ten minutes suck for me in this film, feeling unnecessary for storytelling, and even more having to see the brutal acts on the screen. I know... they aren't real, that's how I got through them, but this factor is one of my cardinal no-nos for movie making and this tale really went too far for me on this level. If this is not a big issue for you, no problems then, but for me and the little ones, exercise caution, because it is some messed up use of the dark arts that crossed my lines and did not make me enjoy the film. Call me a woose, coward, baby, or whatever, but in animal moments there is always that line to not cross and they did.

The VERDICT:

Overall, the movie is a fine experience and has the visual and audio elements to get you into the theater to enjoy the world of Harry Potter. The Secrets of Dumbledore is still the tale of seeing some cool creatures, soime fun antics, and the heroes coming together to accomplish a task and I liked those familiar elements coming in. Throw in some really good acting, and the character stories of some to bring it to life and you have enough to enjoy Rowling's latest exploration of the world. However, the movie is still suffering from the complete feeling for me, a fan service trying to get more money, but not quite delivering on the full magic and experience I look for in these films. The Action is okay overall when you average it out, and the drama is full flavor for those who drink that aspect of the film in this darker installment. However, the character utilization is mediocre, the story as well feeling like a section of the tale instead of complete, and the darkness aspect crosses the line for me a few times to be unnecessary. Yet, it's the pace that is the big issue and the fact that we potentially have two more to go, makes me hope the grand plan Is going to be set up in the future to be the spectacle I know they can make, if they can just pull it back.

My scores are:

Adventure/Family/Fantasy: 7.0-7.5 Movie Overall: 6.5-7.0.

The story of the movie was average but the screenplay was very weak. There are hardly any entertaining scenes in the movie. Movie scenes were a bit boring and slow. Part one movie had good entertaining scenes. Part 2 movie had fairly entertaining scenes but this movie lacks a lot of entertaining scenes. Good entertaining scenes should have been given. The length of the movie could have been cut to a minimum of 15 to 20 minutes. The performance of all the actors in the movie was good but there was no heroine and Johnny Depp in the movie. This movie proves that no one can replace Johnny Depp. Those who have seen the previous two movies in this series must watch this movie at least once. Otherwise, the story of the movie series will not be understood. Overall below average movie.

The first 'Fantastic Beasts' film was very enjoyable. While having its fair share of problems, namely over-stuffing which affected the coherence, there was also a lot to like about the second, with Johnny Depp having much more of a chance to shine and shine he did. So seeing the third was definitely on the cards, despite its troubled behind the scenes with Depp's firing and the JK Rowling controversy which has affected the franchise's popularity this reviewer thinks.

Was also really interested in seeing how Depp's replacement Mads Mikkelsen would fare as Grindelwald. Am someone who has a very high opinion of Mikkelsen and there are not many actors who can play villains as well as he. When seeing it in the cinema some months ago, my thoughts were mixed to midlly positive at first. When thinking over it more recently when finally getting round to reviewing, this reviewer actually found herself liking it less and feeling more strongly about the problems. Of the three, it's for me the weakest (and no, that it doesn't have Depp in it has nothing to do with it) as the first two at least felt like 'Fantastic Beasts' whereas this felt like a distant relative.

'Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore' does have good things. It looks absolutely fantastic, with stunning set/production design, very atmospheric photography and effects that really do give off a sense of wonder. The music is rousing in spots, eerily haunting in others, jaunty in others and melancholic in others. Really liked that Newt had more to do and was more incidental to the story. When the beasts do feature, they are fun. Niffler steals every scene he appears in. Liked the Quilan too.

Of all the scenes in the film, it does start off very well and intriguingly, everything with Dumbledore intrigues and evokes some nice unforced nostalgia and the climax did excite initially. But the highlight is the riotously bizarre dance as part of a particularly perilous escape, a scene that also had a lot of nail biting tension. It is well performed, Eddie Redmayne continues to be well cast as Newt and Dan Vogler has a lot of fun moments. Ezra Miller is quietly intense and Jude Law is nobly charismatic. Mikkelsen is always going to be compared to Depp, and while it is a very different interpretation and more James Bond villain-like Mikkelsen is still very menacing in a subtle way.

Against all of that, there is a lot wrong. It was good that the plotting is more streamlined/straightforward and more coherent than the second, but it does suffer still from not doing enough with too many plot strands. Coming off worst is the Yusuf Kama subplot and role, which are completely incongruous to the story and could have been left out entirely because absolutely nothing is done with it. Credence's story, after so much promising build up and some nice suspense still, felt rather rushed.

Moreover, 'Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore' is too long by about twenty minutes, tightening the pace, exciting Kama's role and storyline and trimming down a little some of the last act would have solved this. Didn't like too the script's annoying tendency to over-explain, too much telling and not enough show and too much of a reliance on background exposition. Really wish that there was more of the beasts, when they do appear they are fun (though only Niffler is properly memorable) but they are very under-utilised and have very little role in the story. Excepting a nice build up, the ending felt very anti-climactic and incomplete and is a type of ending that this reviewer doesn't care about usually in case another instalment or two is not done.

In conclusion, very conflicted here and couldn't have feeling disappointed. 5/10.

I'm surprised about the amount of negative reviews. Really enjoyed this film & it's my favourite in the series so far. The acting is great across the board. Dumbledore features much more heavily in this film & although I love Johnny Depp, Mads Mikkelsen makes an excellent Grindelwald.

The special effects, especially during the dueling sequences are visually impressive.

I really like how this film has started to tie into the later Harry Potter films an i'm looking forward to the next instalment in the series.

The first two installments have been a little slow for my taste but the reviews for this seem quite harsh, it's worth a watch!

After watching FB3 I really need a HP remake with this visuals and special effects quality. It's Superb. Overall this movie isn't as bad as they say apart from the Quilin that is a clear deus ex machina and does as tool for the whole plot.

Rather slow and boring with a politically oriented plot which throttles itself through its design choices. There's lots of spectacular looking CGI and special effects, but most of the action was in dark scenes which made it hard to see what was going on and for all the magic in the film, it had none of the awe or amazement of the Harry Potter films. Some funny moments and the acting and music was ok, but the secrets were underwhelming and although the production value was high, the entertainment level was not.

Great addition to the HP world, i was done with Fantastics Beasts after the second one but gave it another chance because of the cast on this one, i have to say they did it again...

Hopefully we will see more Jude Law and Mads Mikkelsen if there's another movie.

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.

A movie with some solid ideas for character development and a promising overall plotline that constantly loses itself in meaningless subplots and ridicoulus moments of mere fan service. Overall the movie ended up being a visually impressive gathering of missed opportunities.

Instead of focusing on Newt, Dumbledore or Grindelwald the writers included screentime filling action for a number of side characters that does not influence the outcome at all. This only prevents the main story from progressing and (apart from the admittedly hilarious sidekick Kowalski) creates passages that you just have to endure.

Plus the faceless army of Grindelwald's followers is so utterly incompetent that there never is any real danger to the heroes. They get shot down like puppets in a 15:1 strength ratio, are knocked out by Quidditch balls that wouldn't even cause a twelve-year-old any problems (see Harry Potter Part 2) and get beaten up by a Muggle with a suitcase.

The whole "we meet at Hogwarts to make a plan to save the world"-scene could have been replaced by a simple letter and wasn't any more than an excuse to include the castle in the trailer.

As a real Potterhead, I watched Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore Premiere in the theatre. After the movie got postponed twice my expectations got higher and I was definitely optimistic about this one. It dissapointed me again. The longest part of the movie is totally unnecessary and boring, filling our heads with some information in a really slow way. The last part of the movie contains few great battles and Harry Potter backstory information so the movie is definitely watchable especially for the Harry Potter fans, but generally the plot barely exists and the whole movie is only a bridge to the new, upcoming one. Just like the last part, The Crimes of Grindelwald, this one contains great visuals and fighting sequences, but awful pacing and a boring plot.

Just a waste of time, not worth a penny. Wait for it when it's become available on internet for free. Also changing one of the main characters for rumors it's just stupid i hope this series go to bankrupt the company.