Third time's a charm for the "Fantastic Beasts" series, which took three tries to — finally — produce something that feels like a complete movie.
"The Secrets of Dumbledore" takes a few scenes to get going. After the introduction of a dizzying array of characters and story lines, things don't really click until Jessica Williams' Lally Hicks shows up to summarize what happened in "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald." One thing she doesn't mention: The series took advantage of the opportunity to dump Johnny Depp and trade up with Mads Mikkelsen as villainous Gellert Grindelwald.
With his etched cheekbones and menacingly measured delivery, Mikkelsen plays a lot of people who probably have kill rooms in their basements. That's true here, too, where the principal conflict is between Grindelwald and Jude Law's Albus Dumbledore, who's not yet the head honcho at Hogwarts (although the school does get enough screen time to make Potterheads gleeful).
