Secrets of Dumbledore - Initial Reaction Spoiler Free

 

"Albus Dumbledore assigns Newt and his allies with a mission related to the rising power of Grindelwald."

- IMDB

Straight up, was this film good or bad? Yeah, actually it was pretty solid. Wayyyyy better than the 2nd film. Pacing was better and the goal of the film seemed much more clear. In the 2nd film, everyone was fumbling around and it was hard to follow. Secrets of Dumbledore was much easier to follow and is the better of the two sequels. 

There was still the issue of too many characters that nobody cared about - such as Kama, Bunty, Lally, & Queenie (sorry gurl). Jacob had some good moments that I appreciated; and everyone freaked out about the wand thing for literally no reason, it wasn't a big deal in the end. Jude Law was better as Dumbledore than in the last film. Ezra Miller wasn't really there too much; I think he was more important in the 2nd film anyways. Aberforth was okay too. And yes...... despite it all Mads was a terrific Gellart. I hate that it had to be him, but it s what it is I guess...

Though as can be said for all three movies - Newt Scamander was literally my favorite thing of the whole film. I'm a Hufflepuff so Newt is the Puff Hero of my dreams. He has my entire heart and I love him dearly. I'm obsessed with Eddie Redmayne and this is my favorite role of his. I only wish he had more Newtina scenes. I'm sure there's a reasonable, acceptable reason why she was absent, but I don't care. Thankfully there was enough going on that I didn't dwell on her too much, but when she was ever mentioned I was livid. I hated that she was written off like this. She must come back; so many things were unsatisfactory without her.

Overall, it wasn't bad. As I said, pacing was better and it was a bit more enjoyable and watchable. It does have it's flaws and has it's issues with use of plot convenient elements if you know what I mean. I have to watch it again to really think about it more objectively. But the music was good, action was fun, there was some great humorous moments, and I did indeed fall for the fan service traps.

Let it be known I had 3 major hopes on my checklist - that the film would be better than the last, that the truth of Aurelius would be revealed with a logical explanation (some ridiculous theories had me fuming over the years), and that my theory about Ariana would be true. Well, the film was better than the last. None of those stupid Aurelius theories were true and the actual truth was somewhat believable. And my theory, which I've been sitting on for 3 years, was true; I was physically shaking for 15 minutes because I was so happy to be right. 

As a wizarding world fangirl freak, seeing this movie was important to me despite everything. And for what it's worth, I'm pretty happy with the result.

My Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆