"Do what is right - not what is easy."
Hello everyone!
Now it's been a hot minute since the previous movie was released, because filming for this was delayed and complicated with so many other things, from trials, accusations, to COVID, and yet FINALLY we have it here with us!
It's also arriving on HBO Max at some very near point in the future if I remember correctly.
But honestly, with so many other things to worry about in the world, isn't it fantastic to be able to literally turn your brain off for a little bit?
I think so, at least.
So without further ado, y'all better dust off your wands now, Muggles.
Because we're about to uncover The Secrets of Dumbledore, and you're going to need them.
Links to the previous two movie reviews, as well as the entire Harry Potter movie series, can be found at the bottom of the page, as always.
In a very, VERY quick recap, however: Newt Scamander, who only really wants to help magical creatures and study them, has gotten embroiled in the rise of Gellert Grindelwald (totally against his wishes). He and his friends, including but not limited to Queenie Goldstein, a Legilimens, Tina Goldstein, American Auror, and Muggle Jacob Kowalski, have thwarted his power-grab once, but he's now managed to escape and is gathering followers.
He also ended up killing Leta Lestrange, erstwhile fiancée to Newt's older brother Theseus, and lure Queenie and Credence (an Obscurus) to his side.
Oh, and, he's told Credence he's a Dumbledore, so there we go.
That is the BARE BONES of it, where we pick up in this third movie, as Newt is legitimately in the middle of nowhere looking for a magical creature, called the Qilin, and ends up in the path of Credence and some other of Grindelwald's followers, equally on the hunt for said creature, and they take off with the newborn, killing the mother.
But wait! Mom had twins, so Newt gets the second one and hot foots it out of there.
He also has Albus convince Theseus to join the cause, by explaining that, because of the blood pact he and Grindelwald had sworn in their youth (they were in love and blinded by ideas of world domination, and while Dumbledore managed to outgrow at least one of those things to something healthier, Grindelwald never has) he's incapable of moving against him, and vice versa.
Meanwhile, Jacob is having a raw deal of it, missing Queenie, when he's sort-of tricked by Lally Hicks, an American Charms teacher, to join their cause, so they tag along to regroup with the others (including Yusuf Kama, remember him, the dude who was searching for Leta in the second movie) on a train headed to Berlin.
It's ALWAYS Berlin, but then again, you have to remember the year's 1932. In Europe terms, this means it's not too long before Adolf Hitler makes an appearance.
Anyway, Newt gives each of them, his assistant Bunty included, an assignment from Dumbledore that the others know nothing about, because Grindelwald can see snippets of the future, but not the whole thing, so the plan is to confound and confuse him. The group separates, Bunty taking Newt's suitcase (and heading to a place where she can have duplicates made), Theseus getting a tie, and Jacob getting a core-less wand.
They head over to the German Ministry to deliver a message to current Supreme Mugwump so as to try and stop Grindelwald, but the man is acquitted of all his crimes and allowed to enter the running for the next Mugwump, at that. Remember he Qilin they stole? Well, Grindelwald killed it, but he's hanging on to the corpse because he'll need it.
Yusuf takes off to join Grindelwald's followers as a spy, though whether or not he is remains in question for the rest of the movie; Theseus gets himself arrested when he tries to accuse some of Grindelwald's followers, and the rest of them take off for the time being, regrouping with none other than Dumbledore in the streets.
He sends Newt to rescue his brother from the German version of Alcatraz (though I'm pretty sure Alcatraz never had magical scorpions you swivelled with, nor a big-ass mother creature to eat the inmates once their lights went out!), and Jacob and Lally to stop a potential assassination attempt at a tea party.
They're successful, if only because Lally uses magic to have it seem as if Jacob tried to attack the lot with his wand (which, as we all know, is useless without a core anyway) so they save one of the other candidates from assassination, then hightail it out of there.
They all regroup at Hogwarts, and OH MY GOD when the first view of the castle is unveiled and the musical theme starts playing, if you don't tear up, you've got a heart of stone.
ANYWAY, Dumbledore then reveals that the next Supreme Mugwump is going to be elected in Bhutan, by none other than the Qilin, which is why Grindelwald needs his, but the rest of them will try and stop him, at that. Each takes one of the forged suitcases and they head on through a Portkey, to split up while they're on the ground.
All of them are eventually cornered, and their suitcases literally explode with the multiplying spell we all know and love, to shower those surrounding them with attacking books, sweets, and Bludgers.
This doesn't stop Grindelwald from using his animated corpse of the Qilin to have it bow before him so he can declare war on the Muggles, something he's been gunning for since forever, but in an interesting turn of events, after torturing Jacob with the Cruciatus curse, Credence is the one who exposes him.
Credence has a rough go of it in this movie, trying to kill Dumbledore (what is it with these Dark Wizards and having others do their dirty work for them?) and instead learning that he isn't actually a brother, but he IS the illegitimate son of ALBUS' brother, Abeforth, who fell in love with a girl the same summer Albus and Gellert fell in love.
There's a lot of mirror messages being sent back and forth throughout the movie (I swear, Abeforth and mirrors!), but the point is that Credence is dying because of the side effects of the suppressed magic, and it's apparently the reason that the phoenix is sticking around with him, not what Grindelwald says. Anyway, he exposes his one-time mentor, with a little help from Newt and none other than Bunty who reveals the second, living Qilin.
And that Qilin heads straight for Dumbledore, who tries his best to shoo it off, but the little cutie won't be dissuaded and bows, though he declines the position, and so the one actually chosen is the woman Grindelwald tried to assassinate earlier in the movie.
Grindelwald then loses his cool and tries to kill Credence, but Albus and Abeforth (when HIS snazzy hat appears next to his brother's, it's cheer time) both intercept it with theirs, and the resulting backlash destroys the blood vow, which frees the two most powerful wizards of all time to actually go after one another like rabid dogs.
They don't finish it there and then though, as Grindelwald takes off, but Theseus has Dumbledore promise he'll go after him, and then the whole group tags back to New York where Jacob and Queenie get married in his bakery - and we also get a surprise visit from Tina to stand in as Maid of Honor!
Tina's absence is the one thing fans are wondering about the loudest, because we don't know whether it was scheduling conflicts, vaccinations, illness, or WHAT that prevented her from helping the gang, though my bet is some sort of illness. I was FLOORED when the shot of the actress appeared, because she looks like she's lost weight she can't afford to lose, and I don't know if it's because of the costume she wore or what.
Either way, Newt has a final chat with Dumbledore, who's on the outside looking in on the merry group, before disappearing into the night like a lone wolf, indicating how he was always sort of on the outside because of his brilliance and his choices, more like, and that's where the movie ends!
And boy oh BOY is it a good ride, because we do in fact learn Yusuf is no traitor to Dumbledore, but that Dumbledore's fine-tuning his tactics for later against Voldemort by planting spies and using the good old switcheroo.
The story is tight, concise, and filled with humour in just the right places (Jacob is always a gem), but it also sheds light on some of the inner workings of the Dumbledore family, especially with Abeforth (who takes Credence home at the end), and allowing us to learn that Albus is to blame for pretty much everything and anything that's ever gone wrong in the Wizarding World.
The man should stop trying to overachieve, period.
There are a couple of things I'm not sure of, like the phoenix and a dying Dumbledore, but mostly whether the interactions between Albus and Gellert happen in reality, or in a mindscape, because the quality of the scene shifts and the backdrop changes to a white-ish, foggy one whenever they do come face to face.
It would be such a Dumbledore thing, too, based on his last statement to Harry, but maybe we'll learn more in the next movie, if there is one. Apparently it's conditional on how this third does, so fingers crossed that we do in fact get it.
Especially since I LOVED them showcasing just how good Dumbledore is, and how powerful. You can see it in all his magical interactions - the non-flicks with Credence, and all-out with Gellert.
Overall though, this is a nice, solid, entertaining movie that digs a little deeper into the case of Grindelwald and Dumbledore, and Jude Law KILLS is as a younger Albus. The rest of the cast - Redmayne, Fogler, and Mikkelsen especially, to name just a few - are superb in bringing their characters to life, and I honestly can't wait to see what happens next.
Because I have a feeling the adventure is just beginning.
xx
*images and video not mine
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