April 24, 2022 – Not wanting to miss any Wizarding World franchise movies, I went to see this one and was pleasantly surprised that it was not as depressing as I thought it would be.

Those of you who watched “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” thinking it would be a lighthearted magic sequel to “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” may have shared my disappointment in that movie being a real downer. This latest installment, 11th in the franchise, according to Wikipedia, is not the lighthearted romp you might hope for during a pandemic, and dark lord Putin's armies laying waste to Ukraine, but it is slightly more positive in tone than the previous film.

This long-delayed movie brings back many of the same actors and characters from the past two films of the Fantastic Beasts series, with the notable exception of Gellert Grindelwald himself, here played by Dane of fame, Mads Mikkelson (of “Doctor Strange”) who replaced Johnny Depp, who is currently embroiled in a high profile court case.

The film opens with scenes that reveal connections between Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore (played by the all-purpose Brit, Jude Law). Later scenes reveal more unexpected connections between characters. By the end of the story, it seems as though there is too much interbreeding, or nepotism going on with these wizards and witches. This notion of rank and power being a birthright, rather than being earned, is understandably a British thing. They still have royalty there.

The much younger Dumbledore in this movie is more dynamic, but no less manipulative and devious as he plots to foil the evil schemes of Grindelwald, who is a megalomaniac bent on world domination. Dumbledore assembles a team of magic commandos to sabotage Grindelwald's attempts to rig an election that would make him to be the leader of the witching world.

The plot of this story is very complicated, a sort of spy versus spy affair of plots and counter plots, spells and counter spells, as Grindelwald tries to both rig the election and kill Dumbledore. A new actor of note, to go with all the holdovers from previous “Fantastic Beasts” films, is Richard Coyle (of “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”) playing Albus Dumbledore's brother Aberforth.

My favorite series character, Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) returns for this movie, but seems like a fifth wheel in this plot. Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol) who was so warm and radiant in the “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” is very muted in this film, having unconvincingly switched sides in the good versus evil war, well, sort of. She seems a bit ambivalent about which side she is on.

I found the conclusion of this film to be fairly satisfying, but the door is left open for a sequel, which is a real possibility, given the box office success of this movie, which represents some decline, but also shows there is still money to be made from this franchise.

While this franchise has not been able to recapture the magic of the early Harry Potter films, it is still generating some good characters, notably Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) Albus Dumbledore, Theseus Scamander (Callum Turner) Leta Lestrange (Zoë Kravitz) and Jacob Kowalski. The “Fantastic Beasts” movies, however, have yet to produce a character as compelling as Hermione Granger (played by Emma Watson) from the Harry Potter series. Until it does produce better characters, or come up with better plots, the series is not gaining much traction with me. This film rates a C+.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff (no extra charges apply). I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

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