The Secrets of Dumbledore, entertaining but mainly for Potterhead faithful

It was a dark, cool movie theater and I dozed off for just a second. However, it was during that second that my son’s friend poked me in the arm. “A muggle is someone who doesn’t have any magic, like a regular person”, he said. “Thank you, that much I knew about the series”, was my reply. He was just being kind because on the way to the movie theatre I told him that I’d only seen one Harry Potter film, hadn’t read any of the books, and had seen the first Fantastic Beasts film way back in 2016. This opened up a universe worth of ways for him to illustrate how great the books are and why each film in the cannon matters. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is the third film in the series of five and, based on his opinion, will build upon how much that audience reveres these characters.

The Secrets of Dumbledore establishes itself and the main idea very quickly. Professor Dumbledore senses that Grindelwald wants to take over the wizarding world and it’s up to him and his team of wizards to stop it. From a macro level, the plot is that simple. However, to the legions of Potterheads, the intricacies, tweaks to old characters, new beasts, and seeing the growth of existing characters is well worth the price of admission.

As a relative Potterhead muggle, The Secrets of Dumbledore is an entertaining movie. If this is the first Harry Potter or Fantastic Beasts film that you’re seeing, it will be a bit confusing at parts. I was a bit loopy when the different tribes of wizards showed up and wondered which team I should be cheering for. There were also a couple of aspects of the film I found to be quite predictable and some audience members will wish that the 135-minute runtime of the movie was trimmed by 20 or so minutes.

It’s obvious that The Secrets of Dumbledore was lovingly crafted. The film looks gorgeous and has great performances throughout. This is especially true for Mad Mikkesen who steps into the Grindelwald shoes. Every scene that he’s in is too short and he completely steals. His presence is visceral and commanding that everyone, even muggles who don’t know Peter from Potter will pay attention to.

Ezra Miller’s character, Credence Barebone/Aurelius Dumbledore is on the other end of the spectrum. In my mind I was thinking that he’s probably the Alan Rickman character, however, my friend Google quickly refuted that idea. As I haven’t read the books it’s unfair to comment too much on his performance as it could be completely on par with how it’s supposed to be. On-screen, the character, and their intentions were obvious from early on. The secrets that the title alludes to are also most apparent from the first act.

Even with all of that said, the film was entertaining. However, having said that, the film’s climax felt anti-climactic. Oh, I was expecting that to happen, I thought to myself, as the final pieces came into play. The Secrets of Dumbledore, according to fans of the series, is a marked improvement over the second one. Based on the overall mojo of the people that I saw the film with they were very pleased and would eagerly come back for a fourth one in the Fantastic Beasts series. It’s a film that won’t bring any new Potterheads to the yard but will safely please those who want to have fun and get their magic on.