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<\/div>\nBy Michael O\u2019Sullivan<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The latest instalment in the \u201cFantastic Beasts\u201d series of movie prequels based on characters from the Harry Potter universe \u2013 the third of five planned films \u2013 involves a bit of a feint, in more ways than one. <\/p>\n Although subtitled \u201cThe Secrets of Dumbledore\u201d, the movie is only nominally about Dumbledore family secrets: not just those involving the great wizard Albus Dumbledore (Law) in the years before he became headmaster of Hogwarts, but those concerning other branches of his family tree.<\/p>\n To be sure, the film does open with Albus having a genteel tea with his unlikely paramour, evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Mikkelsen, replacing Johnny Depp). <\/p>\n As a villain, Grindelwald is less, er, villainous than Ralph Fiennes\u2019s Voldemort was, but he\u2019s still nasty, and Mikkelsen brings a distinctive air of the psychopath to his creepy portrayal.<\/p>\n But their romance \u2013 which includes a blood oath whereby neither man can attack the other \u2013 is no secret by now. <\/p>\n Nor is the fact of their falling out, over Dumbledore\u2019s disagreement with Grindelwald\u2019s plan to, as the latter puts it, \u201cburn down\u201d the world of non-magical Muggles (whom he dismisses as foul-smelling \u201canimals\u201d). <\/p>\n The real skeleton in the Dumbledore closet, so to speak, is something quite apart from the character\u2019s sexuality, and was alluded to at the end of the last film. Involving a character with the Dickensian name of Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller), it holds some mystery yet, for much of this overlong film.<\/p>\n These plot points involving human relationships are fascinating. <\/p>\n They are, in fact, the most fascinating aspects of Secrets<\/em>, which was written by JK Rowling and Potter veteran Steve Kloves, reuniting with director David Yates for his seventh film in the beloved fantasy franchise. <\/p>\n But they are not the main engine that drives the plot here. Rather, that driver of narrative is an exotic animal \u2013 part dragon and part, I don\u2019t know, unicorn? \u2013 called a qilin (and pronounced \u201cchillin\u201d).<\/p>\n What would you expect from a series called \u201cFantastic Beasts\u201d? <\/p>\n After the tea prologue, the film jumps to a scene with its hero, magizoologist Newt Scamander (Redmayne), trying to save an orphaned baby qilin (more on the significance of this later).<\/p>\n It may be a bit of a disappointment for adult fans, especially after instalment two, \u201cThe Crimes of Grindelwald\u201d, which focused intensely on some deliciously dark human doings, and less on the (admittedly very exotic) critters, all of which, though nicely rendered via CGI, seem geared toward children.<\/p>\n The current story, in its broadest contours, does centre on human affairs: specifically, an election. <\/p>\n More specifically, 1932\u2019s three-way contest for the office of supreme mugwump, or leader of the International Confederation of Wizards, featuring candidates Vic\u00eancia Santos (Maria Fernanda C\u00e2ndido), Liu Tao (David Wong) and \u2013 wait for it \u2013 Gellert Grindelwald. (The pending criminal charges against him, alluded to in the title of the previous film, get dropped early in \u201cSecrets\u201d.)<\/p>\n This being the wizarding world, the election involves acclamation not by anything so pedestrian as the popular vote, but by the approval of the qilin, which has the magical ability to sense a man or woman of honour and good character. <\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean the vote can\u2019t be rigged. This little bit of topicality is a nice dig at recent events. <\/p>\n Exactly how the election is rigged \u2013 and unrigged \u2013 is best left unsaid, but it does involve a sort of sprawling game of three-card monte, conducted by Newt and incorporating suitcases, some empty and some not, over the streets and alleyways of a mountain village in Bhutan.<\/p>\n Newt is joined in the con by family and friends, both old and new, magical and Muggle: his brother Theseus (Callum Turner); his assistant Bunty (Victoria Yeates); the baker Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler); charms professor Eulalie \u201cLally\u201d Hicks (Jessica Williams); and Yusuf Kama (William Nadylam), whose sister Leta Lestrange was killed by Grindelwald in the last film. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a modest and not especially clever gambit, and the story seems to peter out with a disappointing whimper, rather than with a bang.<\/p>\n Potter fans (guilty as charged) will grade Secrets<\/em> on a curve, despite its weaknesses. <\/p>\n It may not be the most spellbinding of the prequels so far, but it does advance this saga in an entertaining, if less than fantastic way.<\/p>\n Source <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Michael O\u2019Sullivan The latest instalment in the \u201cFantastic Beasts\u201d series of movie prequels based on characters from the Harry Potter universe \u2013 the third of five planned films \u2013 involves a bit of a feint, in more ways than one. Although subtitled \u201cThe Secrets of Dumbledore\u201d, the movie is only nominally about Dumbledore family […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1058990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1058989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrity-gossip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1058989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1058989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1058989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1058989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1058989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1058989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}