“Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets” hit theaters around the world this April and its low box office receipts along with poor critical reception make it clear that something is not working in the spin-off saga of the magical world. The third film in the story of Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) makes it clear that he still has a long way to go to be as transcendent as “Harry Potter”.
In this note we review what happened on the tape and we tell you why it does not surprise or please as much as its predecessor.
Really fantastic”?
From the beginning we told you that “Fantastic Animals” 3 is not a bad movie and not even close to what the specialized critics say about it.
YOU CAN SEE: Review of “Better Call Saul 6″, ch. 1 and 2: a puzzle of mystery and action
However, it is also not what a fan of “Harry Potter” (potterhead or not) would like, much less a memorable tape.
Newt Scamander played by Eddie Redmayne. Photo: Warner Bros.
“Harry Potter”, its predecessor, is the perfect example to realize that this face of the magical world is not as fantastic as its title suggests.
These are two different stories, but even though both have all the resources to tell a memorable story, they achieve gigantic different results.
YOU CAN SEE: John Wayne Gacy on Netflix: the docuseries about the killer clown that tormented the United States
The first 3 Potter films are from a different genre each: “The Philosopher’s Stone” it is a fish out of water story; “The Chamber of Secrets” it is an adventure for children; Y “The prisoner of Azkaban” it is a dark thriller.
In the fifth Harry Potter film, the protagonist creates Dumbledore’s Army to fight Voldemort. Photo: Warner Bros.
For its part, in the Scamander trilogy, only the first film has personality, a solid story and a clear protagonist.
In “The Crimes of Grindelwald” Y “Dumbledore’s Secrets”the genre does not change and remains in a political conflict that, although it could be interesting, fails to deepen and becomes superficial.
YOU CAN SEE: “Lightyear”: second trailer shows Emperor Zurg and time travel
a forgotten protagonist
In the original saga, the viewer took the role of Harry (or even his companions), that boy who leaves the gray reality to enter the colorful world of magic.
Newt Scamander is the author of the famous book “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
With “Fantastic Beasts”, only his first film manages to be formidable by introducing us to Newt Scamander’s exotic creatures, which pose more than one problem for the magizoologist.
But with “The Crimes of Grindelwald,” what was supposed to be a Newt story starts to open up too much and the viewer loses interest in the story.
YOU CAN SEE: Johnny Depp will no longer be in “Pirates of the Caribbean”: not even a millionaire contract will make him return
“The Secrets of Dumbledore” corrects the errors of the sequel, but in doing so, it commits the serious fault of leaving its protagonist in a secondary state.
Fantastic Beasts 3: The battle between Dumbledore and Grindelwald begins and for this both will seek to unite allies. Photo: Warner Bros.
This is not the story of Newt, but of Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Scamander is important to the film, but he is reduced to an assistant to the headmaster of Hogwarts.
If in “Harry Potter” we were worried about what would happen to the trio of friends, in “Fantastic Beasts” 3 we only wonder: do we really care about Dumbledore’s secrets?
YOU CAN SEE: “Obi-Wan”: Christensen watched “The clone wars” and “Rebels” to prepare
They may be important for the plot, yes, but are we interested in finding out what this character hides?
We are not all Potterheads
It is clear that if you know about the books written by JK Rowling, there will be many details that you will be able to grasp more quickly, which is not bad.
Hermione, Ron and Harry Potter. Photo: Warner Bros.
However, the complexity of certain situations sometimes makes the viewer wonder, “Do I need to google this to understand who this character is?”
YOU CAN SEE: Will Smith postponed again: Disney delays his documentary series
In “Harry Potter,” even though all the tapes were connected, each film had a unique problem that was solved with information from its own story.
Hermione and Draco in “Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban.” Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
Watching any film in the series, it never felt necessary to have read the books first, it just added to the experience.
“The Secrets of Dumbledore”, on the other hand, feels forcefully connected to the first 2 movies and the facts that are explained get a bit tedious at times.
YOU CAN SEE: “Better Call Saul” 6: the curious scene that includes Peru in the Netflix series
An uncertain future
In conclusion, “Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets” is not perfect, but it is not as bad as critics say.
Erza Miller plays Credence Barebone in the “Fantastic Beasts” saga. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures
The story isn’t bad, but it doesn’t become transcendent and it’s far from as memorable as “Harry Potter’s” once were.
It is still in doubt whether or not we will see a fourth film, but there is still hope for fans to see the saga completed with 5 films. Everything is in the hands of Warner Bros.
#Fantastic #Animals #missing #Harry #Potter #memorable #saga