Page 19 - The Flickering Cauldron Magazine - May 2022

F ilm Review Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
We are complete Potter and Fantastic Beast fans here at Flickering HQ so the long awaited third movie of Fantastic Beasts had to be seen as soon as possible. So, we set of, excited and eager, for our afternoon out at the wonderful Everyman cinema in Winchester, with its armchair seats and boutique service. With popcorn in one hand, a latte in the other, the lights dimmed and the gallery went quiet for the opening scenes...
Now, we don't really want to give too much away to the plot and spoil anyone's enjoyment, so will just give our review on the movie in general.
Within the first 10 minutes of the movie, it set the stage in 'wow' moments for the movie, as is superb in storyline and in animation, but this soon changed, well for me at any rate.
The switch from Johnny Depp to Mads Mikklesen to play Gellert Grindelwald, most film critics have written, has made an improvement to previous Fantastic Beasts. Personally I disagree, it completely threw me as to who he was, although it didn't take me long to get my bearings, I felt he was missing a Grindelwald spark of something, of the original.
Although a brilliant actor, there were no characteristics in my opinion of what Johnny Depp instilled into Grindelwald, it was like watching a completely different bad guy character, who by the way also had a different agenda to Grindelwald in the previous movie the Crimes of Grindelwald, (won't give an spoilers away though) so I am not surprised I was confused. Once I got into the new character of Grindelwald, I enjoyed the characteristics Mads Mikklesen brought to the role. I am a Johnny Depp fan ultimately so I may be a little biased! So, personally I missed him as Grindelwald, throughout the movie.
The Flickering Cauldron® Magazine - Film Review, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore | 19