The Fantastic Beasts series has had its struggles with balancing compelling storytelling along with building the greater world of Harry Potter. As it is with most prequels, sometimes the movies focus too much on their fan service and references which often time takes away from the specific movie at hand. In The Secrets of Dumbledore, that issue is taken care of, and then some, as the third entry is much more of a step up in quality compared to the first two installments.
This time around the battle lines are starting to get drawn as Muggles and Wizards prepare for War, which is spearheaded by Gellert Grindelwald as he wants to see the muggles suffer by any means. Going by the title there are also more things revealed when it comes to Albus Dumbledore and his relationship with Grindelwald, and you get much more insight and backstory with Dumbledore that feels well placed and not forced or something that the character wouldn’t struggle with. The specific story this time around didn’t drag as much as it did in the previous ones, and you are interested in what is happening. In terms of performances though there are a few standouts with Jessica Williams who reprises her role as Professor Eulalie Hicks, Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore, Mads Mikkelsen who takes over the role of Grindelwald from Johnny Depp (and makes it his own), and the true heart of this whole series, Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski. Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander was the most tolerable in this movie as he isn’t the main focus, he gets to have more fun moments and his multiple companions (the Fantastic Beasts) all get their moment to shine.
Overall the movie was very enjoyable as it didn’t drag as much as the last one and never felt like I needed to see what time it was because I was losing interest. Director David Yates did a better job stretching out the action and making it feel important, especially when it came to Dumbledore and Grindelwald. And for me, the biggest change that helped this series was the writing, as J.K. Rowling collaborated with Steve Kloves who was a writer on every Harry Potter movie this time around. If you are invested in this series at this point then you will very much appreciate this movie, but I do think that it does a good enough job to let you know what going on if you are a casual fan. So I would certainly recommend this one when it comes out.