Rated: M
Directed by: David Yates
Screenplay Written by: J. K. Rowling & Steve Kloves
Based on the Screenplay by: J. K. Rowling
Produced by: David Heyman, J. K. Rowling, Steve Kloves, Lionel Wigram and Tim Lewis
Executive Producers: Neil Blair, Danny Cohen, Josh Berger, Courtenay Valenti and Michael Sharp
Starring: Eddie Redmaye, Jude Law, Ezra Miller, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Callum Turner, Jessica Williams, Katherine Waterston and Mads Mikkelsen.
‘No one can know everything.’
A quietly rocking train. Professor Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) sighs.
Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen) comments, ‘They like to chatter, the muggle friends.’
Grindelwald thinks of muggles as animals.
‘But they do make a good cup of tea.’
Dumbledore and Grindelwald were going to take over the world when they were young. They made a blood pact, a powerful spell meaning they could not harm the other.
Now that Grindelwald wants to destroy the muggle world and take control of the wizarding world, it’s a pact Dumbledore regrets.
The Secrets of Dumbledore continues on from the previous instalment of Magic Beasts. And for me, this is the best one yet.
I was absolutely delighted, there’s no other way to describe the feeling of seeing Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) along with the Pickett, the Bowtruckle and Teddy the Niffler.
Newt describes Teddy as frankly a nightmare but what would he do without him? Remembering Teddy’s also the critter who managed to steal back the pendant holding the blood of Dumbledore and Grindelwald – he’s a very clever Niffler still obsessed with gold and still hilarious.
Queenie (Alison Sudol) still resides with Grindelwald as does the darkly disturbed Obscurial, Credence (Ezra Miller) – the only wizard powerful enough to attempt to kill Dumbledore and used by Grindelwald because the pact dictates he cannot kill Dumbledore himself.
A wanted criminal, Grindelwald wants to be free. He wants to take over the world.
To fight back, Dumbledore calls upon: Newt along with Newt’s brother, Theseus (Callum Turner), Head of the British Auror Service; Newt’s assistant, Bunty (Victoria Yeates), ‘No one can know everything. Not even you,’ she tells Newt.
Muggle baker Jacob (Dan Fogler) is called back, even though he’s heartbroken and doesn’t want to, he can’t resist saving a dame in distress; introducing, Eulalie Hicks (Jessica Williams): ‘Well, you do know I’m a witch, right?’
And finally, there’s Yusuf Kama (William Nadylam) of an old wizardly bloodline quietly adding his graceful loyalty while he morns for his half-sister, Leta.
They all look at one another, so this is who’s going to save the world?
There’s a different tone to his instalment, less of that 1920s feel and more dungeons and deep dark forests, temples on clifftops and snow falling from the sky as Credence uses the Obscurian to tear the streets apart.
Newt with his fantastic beasts adds lighthearted moments, his crablike dance to pacify, well, killer crabs had the entire audience in the cinema giggling.
Again, the beasts were a strong feature in the film, and what I also really enjoy in, Fantastic Beasts is the use of objects – the pendant holding the blood pact, the snake wand, Newt’s case holding the magic beasts. The attention to detail is thoroughly absorbing. Every detail balanced, the storyline, well-paced.
There’s a perfect play of darkness and light in, The Secrets of Dumbledore as the story starts digging deeper: it’s funny, sometimes confronting, it’s explosive, dramatic and heart-warming.
I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next.