It never feels like an attempt to reproduce their magic and simply lean back on it. The way David Yates handles the revisiting of familiar places and characters is especially skillful. Help will be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.' In The Crimes of Grindelwald, Dumbledore is absent, but his friend shows up in an important way. As he insists in the original series when he's forced out of Hogwarts: 'I will only truly have left this school when none here are loyal to me.

So when Flamel, who hasn't seen battle in a while, feels the responsibility to come out of his reclusion in a moment of need, and his great powers are revealed, it draws a smile only if viewers are familiar with the way Dumbledore operates (which is to do his best to plant seeds in many places so that people on the good side of the fight are always somehow helping each other). In The Crimes of Grindelwald, Dumbledore cannot join the fight just yet. Dumbledore notes to Harry that 'to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure' and it's clear he and Flamel are two great minds who are well aligned. Eventually, they decide it's best destroyed, and Flamel chooses final rest over the immortality the stone gave him. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Flamel's stone is hidden at Hogwarts under Dumbledore's supervision. Why is this random character, briefly introduced a few scenes before, saving the day? But fans will know how close Flamel and Dumbledore are. Without the knowledge of what her family stands for-a pure-blood ancestry that would later find its calling in Voldemort's message-the emotions of this girl who had a confusing past, felt out of place, and aligned herself with the good side, won't be felt in the same way.Īnother example is the emergence of Nicolas Flamel at the end. For example, there's the character of Leta Lestrange. But movies will always work for some audience segments more than others-that shouldn't be a flaw. It has more capacity to surprise that audience than newcomers. The references to various, unexpected parts of Potter lore certainly makes this a film more ideally suited for longtime fans.

The crimes of grindelwald