Director: David Yates
Distributor: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Duration: 142 minutes
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (4K UHD) – Movie Review
It’s been quite some time since we saw Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and we were quite happy to see the next installment of the franchise finally reach our doorstep. The creation of this new installment was quite tumultuous as Johnny Depp was replaced and the production was ongoing during the pandemic. So the creative team had to combat two major issues, and one of these issues garnered a lot of negative attention. However, even with those problems, we were still quite enthusiastic to see how the story would unfold in this new film.
The Secrets of Dumbledore revolves around a fantastic beast, the Qilin, which can see into a person’s soul. This magical creature is seemingly important to Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen), who is doing his best not to get prosecuted for the crimes he has committed. Before long, Newt (Eddie Redmayne) and his companions find themselves in the German Ministry of Magic, to hopefully persuade them that Grindelwald should be punished for his misdeeds. Sadly, it seems that Grindelwald’s influence runs deep, and he finds himself acquitted and even in a position where he can run for the position of Supreme Leader of the wizarding world. On top of that, he is getting more and more support from other wizards and witches.
Even though this movie spans well over two hours, there weren’t any dull moments to be found. There was a great balance between information and action, and we also absolutely enjoyed the fact there was a bigger focus on the fantastic beasts again. All characters received their time in the limelight, and we even saw a proper story evolution which we perhaps missed in the previous movie. In hindsight, we perhaps even scored the second film a bit too high in comparison to this one. The story for this third movie had a clearer purpose and goal, and it was just a lot more entertaining.
In terms of cast, we’ll have to address the elephant in the room, namely replacing Johnny Depp with Mads Mikkelsen. Don’t get us wrong, Mads Mikkelsen does a formidable job playing the villain of the movie, but it just doesn’t really feel the same as Johnny Depp’s Grindelwald. The latter was often a bit more chaotic, compared to the very composed portrayal of Mikkelsen’s Grindelwald. Other than that, the other cast members are well cemented in their roles, and they once again present us with great acting performances. Jessica Williams is a great addition to the cast, and her portrayal of Eulalie Hicks is spot on. We enjoyed this new quirky addition to the cast, and we do hope that she gets ample screen time if a possible next movie were to be released.
When purchasing the 4K UHD version of the film, you’ll also get an additional Blu-ray disc with bonus features on. These extras range from interesting behind-the-scenes footage and making-of sequences, to more amusing things like a fun quiz for the cast members. We found a lot of content on the additional disc, and we quite enjoyed browsing through all the special features. This is one of those cases where you’ll get a proper bang for your buck when purchasing a physical copy of the film.
For our review, we were actually given the current 4K UHD trilogy box. All of the movies have additional discs with bonus features. This means that if you were to do a proper marathon, you have loads of extra content to view. The bundle comes in a small and simple cardboard sleeve (box).
Conclusion
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is a fun new sequel that shows a bit more of the ‘fantastic beasts’ we fell in love with in the first place. The new face for Grindelwald didn’t really vibe with us, but even so, Mikkelsen did his best to make sure the series could go on without Johnny Depp. We do hope the series can go on, even with this one’s moderate success, as we really wish to see the conclusion of the story that is unfolding here.
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