David Yates could direct a Harry Potter Wizarding World film in his sleep, and part of me feels Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore came together during periods of slumber.
The series -- which has starred most regularly Eddie Redmayne as the magizoologist Newt Scamander and Dan Fogler as the earthy mortal Jacob Kowalski -- is a peculiar variety of action fantasy film.
The titular magical critters are indeed fantastic and, I suspect unwittingly, exude more personality than their human co-stars, especially Jude Law as the conflicted Albus Dumbledore, who finds himself opposing in battle his former love interest, the epitome of wickedness Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen).
The picture's core intrigues want to parallel real-world contestations -- both romantic and international -- but, for me, they failed to captivate because they too often verged on silliness, and the pacing never lifted the film out of the narrative doldrums of the familiar -- same worries, different day.
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