‘Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore’ Review
And so to the third episode in the five-part blockbuster that is Fantastic Beasts, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter prequel series. For a start, that colon in the title shouldn’t be there. Yes, there is a menagerie of beasts here and they are, as it says on the tin, truly fantastic. But they don’t have much to do with Albus Dumbledore — headmaster of Hogwarts, the most powerful magician in the Wizarding World and, as we have learned in this extended origin story, a good man with a troubled heart — or with the ongoing story of the struggle between good and evil in the wizarding world. There are at least two stories here and several competing protagonists, with potentially meaty themes, ranging from sibling rivalry to the dangerous rule of the mob, packed in around the edges. A lot going on, in other words, not all of which makes sense.