Wizards’ latest spell fizzles out
‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore’ not very bewitching
The “Harry Potter” books and films, which arguably have been tarnished by creator J.K. Rowling, have the benefit of a magnetic central character and a great young actor to play him in the form of Daniel Radcliffe.
Harry Potter is the David Copperfield of boy wizards, a character young people all over the world have embraced.
The “Fantastic Beasts” films suffer from magnetism deficit in its central character, namely the fantastical creature lover, faux author and “magizoologist” Newt Scamander and the Academy Award-winning actor who plays him, Eddie Redmayne, who at this point resembles Dobby the house-elf, if Dobby sported a thick tangle of solid burgundy-colored hair.
This return to the “Wizarding World,” directed by “Harry Potter” veteran David Yates, is once again like staring into a dark well for almost two and a half hours.
Set in the 1930s, it boasts wondrous creatures such as
the platypus-like Niffler and Groat-resembling Picket, as well as new ones. These characters, Scamander, his older brother Theseus (Callum Turner, who resembles Redmayne, but looks younger), muggle Jacob Kowalski (an appealing Dan Fogler), Eulalie “Lally” Hicks (Jessica Williams, speaking in a sonorous voice) assemble.
Eulalie’s Edgar Allan Poesounding name (“I dwelt alone/In a world of moan.”) is a nice touch. Also on the team are animal handler Bunty (Victoria Yeates) and silent Yusuf Kama (William Nadylam), whose name I was sure was Karma.
These people will eventually team up with Professor Albus Dumbledore (a bearded Jude Law, sporting that jaunty fedora) and his badtempered, Hogwarts’ village pub-owning brother Aberforth Dumbledore (Richard Coyle) in an effort to foil the dastardly plans of Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen, who replaced Johnny Depp after the latter reportedly completed one scene). Grindelwald, who was Dumbledore’s beloved gay lover once, wants, of course, to destroy the world.
On Grindelwald’s team are mind-reading Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol), Jacob’s former romantic partner; Credence Barebone (the recently arrested Ezra Miller aka DC’s The Flash), who is the tall, deeply troubled younger brother of Albus and Aberforth; and someone named Vinda Rosier (Poppy Corby-Tuech), whose job is to make faces at the opposition and model her witchy wardrobe. Grindelward also has an army of “Matrix”-like henchmen in hats and coats.
In the third act, the good team confronts Grindelwald and his cohorts in Bhutan, where we are told some of the oldest forms of magic originated, to stop Grindelwald from winning the highest office in the Wizarding World, even though he is a criminal. Can you imagine such a thing happening here? Also, Grindelwald has control of a lamb-like magical creature that foretells the future. The wizards and witches of Berlin seem to stage a Nazi rally. Where’s Leni Riefenstahl? She was a real witch, if you ask me.
We visit Hogwarts, and hear “Harry Potter” musical cues. In a low blow, horrid quidditch will be evoked. Someone leaves misty messages on mirrors.
Screenwriter Steve Cloves of the “Harry Potter” films has the story unfold in a series of fraught meetings of characters, who stare intently at one another, spout J.K. Rowling’s “wizarding” word salad and get into wand pyrotechnics.
In the film’s best sequence, Newt strives to rescue Theseus from a horrible prison full of scorpion-like “manticores” carpeting the floors and walls. Newt realizes the creatures will mimic his actions and performs a jig to keep them from stinging him. Aside from that, this staring contest-like “Fantastic Beasts” is not very bewitching at all.
(“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” contains fantasy violence.)