The Reel Rejects - THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE Movie Review - STRAIGHT FROM THE THEATRE!

Episode Date: April 14, 2022

Live from a theatre (but not *the* theatre lol), Greg & John discuss their thoughts on the latest entry into the Fantastic Beasts franchise. Featuring Mads Mikkelson taking over the role of Gellert Grindelwald from Johnny Depp, Ezra Miller's Credence, Jude Law reprising his role as beloved Hogwarts Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, some familiar friends including Eddie Redmayne's Newt Scamander & Dan Fogler's Jacob Kowalski as well as some bright new faces. Will they be able to assemble a team strong enough to stand against Grindelwald? Does the film rekindle that Harry Potter magic? We share our two cents! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-reel-rejects/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Chipotle, for real. what's going on there reject nation greg and john with the wand today we just got out of watching fantastic beasts and the secrets of dumbledore so many secrets all the a couple a couple secrets a couple secrets mostly things we knew already i was like we going to see Dumbledore in a bad light? Not really. No, they always teetered. They played it a little sick.

They mention it. A lot of you guys might know this. We were not fans of the Crimes of Grindelwald. No, no, no, no, no, sir. The only Harry Potter movie I actively disliked. I really don't like that film. And here's the first thing I'll tell you guys, it is so much better than the crimes of Grendelwald.

Like, lie ears better. I can actually tell you what the plot of this movie is, which is already in itself, a significant improvement over the last. So yeah, if you haven't seen the trailers, Jude Law playing Dumbledore because of a blood pack that he made with Grendelwald back in the day when they was gay lovers. Oh my God. Oh, my God.

J.K. exploring the gay stuff. I think they still are. Yeah. They're still gay. Do they stop it? They don't really practice any longer. Anyway, so. Dumbledore enlisted the help of Nudesk commander.

They assemble a team to basically work together to figure out a way to take. Take Down Grindle Wall, the enemy, played by Nads Mikkelson this time. Not Colin Farrell, not Johnny Depp, Nads Mickleson. That is the plot of the movie. While there's some secrets to uncover throughout, they keep it pretty streamlined and focus. Now, does that mean it's a good movie just because it's better than the last one? Kind of. Yeah, no, it's a definite improvement.

Because of how much I didn't like the last one, I was watching this with not as much of an open mind in the first half hour. I did find myself being like a little old. overly critical when I didn't need to be. Then when I caught myself, I was just asking myself, like, okay, how am I really responding to this film? Overall, in the end, I would say, like, I actually enjoyed it because here's the honest to God truth. We saw it at a different theater, but we weren't a lot of film in there.

Nope. So we drove to a different theater. Authenticity, baby. How the sausage is made. We were like, but we do our reviews in the theaters. Who's going to care if it's not authentic? And the car ride over to this other theater. I was like, oh, yeah, we need to talk about this movie.

I haven't thought about it, one bit. I do have some pretty clear problems that I'll say for a little bit later, but yeah, in the end of it all, I still prefer the first Fantastic Beast movie. I know some are saying this one's better, especially because it's darker. I don't agree with that assessment for this particular installment, and it doesn't quite capture the magic of what you would want, even though there's a lot of magic, it doesn't elicit the emotion of feeling wonder and magic. This film is definitely aiming for. It's fine. A little bit forgettable. But fine.

Yeah, it falls squarely in the middle of the Fantastic Beast films for me. And I felt a lot of similar things. I came in certainly hoping that it would be a better experience than Crimes of Grindlewald. And it is, but it doesn't quite capture the cohesive magic of the first movie, even though there are aspects of The Secrets of Dumbledore that I do kind of like the most out of the franchise. But yeah, overall, it's not consistent enough or as important and momentous as it wants to be. ultimately it was kind of a middling but pleasant experience yeah especially by the end of it it felt a little like perfunctory i thought they could have rack this whole story up but let's talk

about mads mickleson all right it was really weird experience but halfway through the film john stood up and said justice for jones for johnny trials going on right now it's happening today okay mads mickleson i would say he is the best this is like the weird thing about this franchise i would say he's the best Grindlewald we've had thus far. Easily the best Grindlewald. It feels like he was always there. Yeah. No, he lives in it. I feel like he actually understood like the Harry Potter world very well and knew everything of what he was dealing with and talking about, you know? He really feels lived in. At the same time, he didn't quite leave as strong of an impression as one would actually hope. And this is probably incredibly subjective for me, myself. So I'm curious here what you have to say. I love Mads

Mickelson, the performer. Like, I've seen all of Hannibal. He's fantastic. And that's, ha, ha, fantastic. He's fantastic in that show as well. Brilliant. I hope they gets picked up for a season four. What he did here was exactly what you'd expect, but nothing more. He's really enjoyable. He can be intimidating, but it's like he doesn't do anything that really goes beyond anything you just expect out of him. Do you kind of get what I mean by that? Yeah, I do. And I think it's more of a scripting issue than anything because, yeah, he does... That's mainly the issues with these films. Yes. And it's like, he does bring that presence and he does bring that malevolent force who many people would follow and dedicate their lives to. All that's great. I do feel like the portrayal of his character is hurt a bit

by the fact that we don't really get any flashbacks or any past experiences to either show the connection in a deeper way between him and Dumbledore or to show his true villainy. I mean, there's a couple things in this movie he does that are pretty cruel, but I don't know. It seems like they want to build up another threat that is Voldemort level important and earth shattering, and I don't feel like they did the legwork to get there. They just kind of told you what his importance is and went from there to the present. Like, we've heard world domination villain like countless times there's no longer

an effect anymore in films unless there's something more specific explored. And yeah, I would agree with that. There's like two really pivotal important scenes, one at the beginning and one at the very end, with Dumbledore and Grindelwald that I think are really strong scenes

and it's really cool to see those actors together. Here's the thing. I might as well just hop into it because ideally you want to do is talk about the good things, but I don't really want to talk too much about them, right? Look, Jacob Kowalski, he's the star of this, all right? Once again, he's the best part of this and the real heart and these movies should be about him. I don't care what anyone says because he is amazing in here. And there's also this new character. What's her name? Hicks. Hicks. She's great. She's another character like, you kind of wish they did more with her.

Yet she is one of the actors, I would say that when she's on screen, her presence really elevates the material. I think she is truly, truly wonderful in this film. Those two are the standouts for me. Yeah, she's one of the few characters that actually elevates the movie to the level of whimsy and warmth that you expect a Harry Potter movie to have at some point. They pair her and Jacob together quite a bit in this film and they are so good together. Jude Law does as good of a job as you'd expect carrying over from Crimes of Grindlewall and the effects and the production design are as amazing as you would expect to walking into this film. And a good job making Newt's expertise and the Fantastic Beast feel like a real part of it.

The finale was cool. I like the finale. There's some good visual sequences in here. It's just when it's not doing that, it's not that interesting. I think that's the problem. This movie should be just as interesting even when it's not doing big visual stuff. Because in any Harry Potter movie, like everywhere you go that's not Muggle World is interesting. While I think this film is better paced and better structured than crimes of Grindelwald, the movie doesn't really do enough to get you to truly care about the characters. A, because it's a prequel, it suffers so much from the prequel syndromes by taking away focus from your new characters like Newt Scamander and Jacob

and putting it onto existing characters like Dumbledore and then Grindalwald, who half this plot is Grindalwald being like, we got to kill Dumbledore. Let's send Ezra Miller after him. You're like, it's impossible for me to buy the stakes. I'm like, I know he's going to live. And then with Grendelwald are like, I know he's going to lose. Bottom line. So I don't fear for any of them.

So the stakes are just not felt. And you might be saying, like, well, then how do you enjoy any prequel? Well, the key to that is the intimate characterization that you do with these individuals. That's why it's something like X-Men First Class can still work because of the fact you get these new intimate details you didn't explore before. While you get some facts about Grindelwald, some facts about Dumbledore, the actual exploration of it is not enough to hold onto emotionally to have you give a shit about any of this to the point you forget that it's a prequel. Like that's the biggest thing. I never once forgot like, you know, wow, that movie had the effect of if I get pulled out, I know he's going to live, but I was so into it that I forgot about it. It never achieves that effect.

And then you've got so many characters on top of that who are just mainly there for plot. Like, no one has a character arc in this film. No one has a journey or a life lesson. This is in the Harry Potter world. And that's what that franchise did so well and why that has such strong legs. The bottom line is, if you're going to watch a tail this sprawling, the visuals become, you become numb to them after a while. They stop holding its weight. So I think it has every right to be compared to them, especially when this franchise is so much about

Dumbledore and less about the new characters. Because the movie doesn't seem to even try too much to make you really care about them. The main character who actually has an arc is the character who progressively becomes less interesting throughout this franchise. For me, at least, Ezra Miller, as Credence. There is so much importance placed on him

in all three of these movies and his screen time becomes less and less and less. And this is arguably when he should be the most important out of any three films. He's Dumblesnap now. And he's just such a bland character. He's just so boring. He's the one with the most to do

emotionally. He should be the most emotionally complex and technically he is. You should be invested for the battle over his solo. I still couldn't get two shits about what Credence is going through in this movie. There's just something missing. There's a detachment

there like just not quite there. You know? Yeah, I mean for something that was pitched as a five-movie franchise, I feel like... It's going to have ended now. Well, yeah, and I feel like part of what has hampered it past the first movie is it seems like they tried to push too hard, too fast to get to those Deathly Hallows-level heights of importance and stakes, and I feel like they would have really benefited from building these stories out over time with a gradual sensibility, much like the Harry Potter films

did, instead of trying to skip to that level of importance. And at this third installment, it does feel like they've now corrected their course. so that if this does well, they can continue, but if it doesn't, they don't have to. It's a weird experience because while it was more enjoyable than I expected it to be, I still can't help but feel like it is not as magical as this film is clearly seeking to be. And when you're in the camp of the Harry Potter world, it should be better. That's just my personal opinion. I feel like it ought to be better.

Yeah, I mean, as somebody who's been invested in Harry Potter for most of my life, I feel like it's easy to come in and sound as though you have a big set of expectations, but really all I want from any Harry Potter movie is to feel that certain sense of warm, but also a little bit foreboding, magic wonder. And I feel like since the first Fantastic Beasts, they have been kind of stumbling around trying to find that. And this movie doesn't quite get there, but it gets closer than the previous one. It gets there in little moments.

Yeah, there are good set sequences. Like, there's one at this interesting prison involving, like, scorpions that I thought was really cool. It was very fun. It was a really fun sequence. And that's when the movie actually decided. to get a little kooky and a little weird, you know, which I think you also expect from a Harry Potter and they haven't been doing quite as much.

But all right, guys, Fantastic Beast and the Secrets of Dumbledore. Do you want two more of these? Leave your thoughts down below. Subscribe, click that bell, hit that like button. We'll catch you guys soon.