Back in 2016, Fantastic Beasts started off as a fun, whimsical adaptation of a fictional guidebook to magical creatures written by J. K. Rowling (under the pseudonym Newt Scamander). It was fun, it was light, and most people had a good time.
As time stretched farther from that initial adaptation, its shine continued to wear off, and the Potterverse spinoff franchise’s tenuous connection to its source material became glaring. It’s reached a tipping point with Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore.
What started as a contained story about magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and his kind-hearted attempt to help Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller) with a particularly nasty magical ailment is now a full-blown epic featuring the legendary conflict between Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) and Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelson).
On paper, the Dumbledore/Grindelwald clash was a no-brainer of a story to tell. It played an increasingly important role as the original series neared its conclusion, and the relationship between the two famous wizards as young lovers turned bitter rivals had plenty of storytelling potential.
But in execution, it gets completely lost amidst plot potpourri, which goes back to the baffling decision to force the Dumbledore narrative into a Fantastic Beasts-shaped hole. Redmayne’s Scamander is a perfectly delightful character on its own, but propping him and his crew up as equals next to Dumbledore, one of the most important literary characters of the past 30 years, is a fool’s errand.
For the rest of the review, which was originally published in the April 13 edition of the Martin City Telegraph, head over to the Telegraph’s site.
