A good joke has a set-up and a punchline. Often the story is familiar but the unique twist on the existing expectation creates a delightful outcome.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore is directed by David Yates – who has directed the previous Fantastic Beasts movies as well as some of the Harry Potter movies and is thus very familiar with this world, so starts off set up to deliver that knock-out punchline to make the audience happy. And happy my friend who came to see it, was. They said it had magical beasts, magic and Dumbledore: what is not to like?
The Fantastic Beasts series focuses on the approaching wizarding war fuelled by Gellert Grindelwald (this time played by Mads Mikkelsen) and how Professor Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) will stop him. Dumbledore, like a classic deus ex machina, never gets directly involved and lets Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and crew do all the heavy lifting.
It was like a magical Ocean Eleven heist film, with attempts at subterfuge and misdirection, to foil Grindelwald’s plot to be in charge of the wizarding world and give him the chance to start his war against the muggles (non-magic people).
There was one part of the film that confirmed a part of the book series that I wasn’t sure they were going to address, so it was a pleasant surprise to see it spelt out directly and it made it feel like it would be Dumbledore’s film but then he disappears for great periods of time.
Like any heist movie, there is a diverse set of characters but their motivations are never very evident and so it became harder to understand their choices and care about them. Obviously, they want to avoid a war, but how that relates to their own personal journey was uncertain except for following Dumbledore’s plan.
As with any deus ex machina, the problem was solved without feeling like the team earned it. Dumbledore did have the biggest emotional growth and change but since he wasn’t on the screen much you didn’t have a chance to go on the journey with him.
There are still two more movies planned in the series so it just kept the story going rather than paying off some self-contained story in a larger universe. It felt like it was a joke with no punch line, but, as with any joke, sometimes people don’t find it funny and other people find it hilarious. My friend sure did.
By Luke McMeeken-Ruscoe
10th April 2022