Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

The sequence of events that take place in this film just don't build up to anything that feels like it matters...

It's very clear, watching these movies, that they're adapted from a branded guidebook. They have all the dramatic interest and excitement of a manual.

This entertaining Harry Potter prequel buries memories of the Grindelwald disaster.

While perhaps the best Fantastic Beasts film, The Secrets of Dumbledore remains a dour movie with lots to say but not enough imagination or understanding to say it well.

Even taken on its own merits, its a case of a sequel too far Theres no getting away from the fact that, without Harry Potter, this (movie) doesnt seem to know where to go.

This one may well be better than “Where to Find Them,” which was a mite busy for its own good. Kicking off a franchise can have that effect.

Here’s a movie that's strictly ab-drab.

It may have been somewhat amusing to spend more time with some of the more intriguing characters of this world, but it's hard not to come away indifferent to the film's stretched-out plot, which, like the previous entries, is rather forgettable.

Call it arrested franchise development, call it a floundering spell, call it an exercise in disenchantment: they all fit, and The Secrets of Dumbledore doesn't have the elixir, incantation or even ambition to magic up anything else.

A continuist sequel that, once again, takes advantage of the appeal of the franchise, but which proves itself unable to offer a satisfactory third act either individually, or as a closure of a potential —and unfinished— trilogy.