Movie reviews: 'Fantastic Beasts,' all about magic, doesn't feel that magical

This week, pop culture critic Richard Crouse reviews new movies: 'Fantastic Beasts,' 'Father Stu' and 'All My Puny Sorrows'

Four years after the last entry in the Wizarding World franchise, the Great Cheekbone Swap unfolds in theatres this weekend as the zygomatically blessed Mads Mikkelsen takes over for former malar bone favorite Johnny Depp in "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore."

Set in the 1930s the real, or Muggle, world is preparing for World War II. In the Wizarding World a battle of a different sort is brewing. Gellert Grindelwald (Mikkelsen), dark wizard and former love interest of Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law), has returned after creating worldwide chaos with a renewed belief in wizarding superiority and a plan to create a new Wizarding World Order.

Cleared of his crimes by the International Confederation of Wizards (ICW), Grindelwald's first step toward world domination comes with a plan to steal the (ICW) election and take control. He wants to burn down the Muggle world. "There's nothing you can do to stop me," he tells his former lover Dumbledore.

As Grindelwald's storm brews, Dumbledore recruits British Ministry of Magic employee Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and company — including returning characters like older brother Theseus Scamander (Callum Turner), brave baker Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) and assistant Bunty Broadacre (Victoria Yeates) — to pick up their wands and do battle.