JK Rowling has bewitched millions with her Harry Potter books, movies and award-winning West End play.
But after the previous Potter prequel, fans were beginning to wonder if the spell was beginning to wear off.
Thankfully, while still nowhere near as enchanting as a trip to Hogwarts, the third Fantastic Beasts film brings some movie magic back to Rowling’s “Wizarding World”.
If you didn’t see, or can’t remember, 2018’s mystifyingly complicated Crimes Of Grindelwald, you may need a quick refresher.
Set decades before a tiny Daniel Radcliffe first boarded The Hogwarts Express, the grown-up hero of Fantastic Beasts is Eddie Redmayne’s charisma-lite “magizoologist” Newt Scamander.
This wand-waving David Attenborough spends his days collecting cute, magical creatures and secreting them in his tardis-like suitcase.
But in the last film, he was drawn into a spat between a younger (and now openly gay) Professor Dumbledore (Jude Law) and his evil wizard ex Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp).
Now we’re in the 1930s, and the fall-out has got a lot more serious.
With fascism on the rise in Muggle Europe, Grindelwald (Mads Mikklesen replacing the cancelled Depp), plans to hijack an election to become the leader of the magical world so he can exterminate all the non-magical “Muggles”.
His key is a scaly, deer-like creature that can detect which candidate has the purest heart. If Grindelwald can bewitch one of them, election victory is a shoo-in. This is where Newt finally shows his worth.
In a bracing opening scene, Newt hunts for a magical Bambi with Grindelwald’s goons in hot pursuit. Meanwhile, Dumbledore is preparing for a tense reunion with the man himself at a Leicester Square tea room.
“I was in love with you,” says Dumbledore explaining why he signed a non-aggression pact with Grindelwald and sealed it in a magical amulet.
“I’m going to burn down their world, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me,” replies his testy ex before exiting the cafe.
While Dumbledore can’t fight him with magic, he can scheme from the sidelines.
So a crack magical team is assembled, made up of Newt, Newt’s brother Theseus (Callum Turner), witch Eulalie Hicks (Jessica Williams) and Muggle baker Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler).
Grindelwald plays even dirtier, manipulating Dumbledore’s disturbed estranged nephew Aurelius (Ezra Miller) into an assassination attempt on his old lover.
The two sides clash in a series of pacy action scenes. Highlights include a prison break featuring a horde of scorpion-like creatures and a spectacular wand fight in the streets of Berlin.
Grindelwald remains a crushingly familiar villain (he’s basically Voldermort with a nose), but Mikklesen delivers a less showy and more creepy villain to Depp’s.
This instalment also benefits from fewer subplots and less screentime for Redmayne’s bumbling hero, who turns out to be far more charming in smaller doses.
Sadly, there remains a Hogwarts-sized hole at the heart of this series. I suspect it was the Quidditch games, playground spats and the childish wonder of its young heroes that made the five Potter flicks so magical.
- In cinemas from Friday
