Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

"The first non-Harry film in the Potter-verse favours a 1926 New York setting that follows characters pivotal to the Harry Potter mythology. If you’re not aware that Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) was a magical zoologist who wrote a textbook or that Gellert Grindelwald fought Dumbledore in an infamous battle for something-or-rather, Fantastic Beasts defines itself so well that newbies can easily follow while nerd eyes will soak up all the new details."

"(The) ambitious first entry in a quintet of promised film adventures, directed with more whimsical panache than usual by Harry Potter stalwart David Yates."

"It’s spectacular and promising, though at first exposure its characters (human and otherwise) are often as grating as charming..."

"(The) beasties provide a lot of the movie’s easygoing pleasures. The adults are rather less engaging."

"Patchy but occasionally charming..."

"The setting is one of the film's highlights, dripping in art-deco architecture and magical speakeasies."

"Director David Yates spends the film’s first half seemingly unaware of the typical rules of screen direction and editing on motion."

""Fantastic Beasts" has clearly been designed for the most devoted of Rowling's fans, and though it may prove confusing to newcomers, the faithful will appreciate the fact the film never talks down to its audience."

"This first instalment showcases just enough of them to make you sign up for the full expedition."

"I'm not sure which is more adorable, Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, or the creatures he smuggles into the US in his battered leather briefcase."

"Rowling and Yates have given us a terrifically good-natured, unpretentious and irresistibly buoyant film."

"This film starts off playfully and then gets, at times, extraordinarily intense and threatening."

"A surprisingly intimate watch given its scale, with moments of real tenderness."

"Likely to draw in just about everyone who followed the Potter series and to please most of them, the picture also has things to offer for fantasy-friendly moviegoers who only casually observed that phenomenon."

"With this heavy lifting done, there's every reason to hope for an even more magical adventure next time."

"Who needs Harry Potter? With 'Fantastic Beasts', it's undeniable that the clear star is screenwriter and 'Harry Potter' author J.K. Rowling."