Fantastic Beasts review round-up: What critics have to say about Harry Potter spin-off film

Early reviews of the British fantasy drama Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them are out and according to the critics, the film should not be missed this weekend. The film, which is directed by David Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, has received mostly positive reviews from the critics.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which is a spin-off of the Harry Potter film series, features Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Carmen Ejogo and Colin Farrell in pivotal roles.

The five-part series film, which was premiered on November 10 at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, will release in the US and the UK on November 18. So before booking your tickets for the movie, read what critics have said about the film.

Variety reviewer Peter Debruge said: "Though Rowling takes the opportunity to introduce a few tolerance-oriented messages, one can't help but question the limits of the allegory: In the real world, bigots don't have a real reason to hate members of other races and religions, whereas wizards — however much we love them — pose a very real threat to normal people (grisly Obscurus attacks result in at least two deaths, and the destruction of large swaths of New York)."

Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian gave the film five stars and said: "Fantastic Beasts is a rich, baroque, intricately detailed entertainment with some breathtaking digital fabrications of prewar New York City.

"Rowling and Yates have given us a terrifically good-natured, unpretentious and irresistibly buoyant film. There's a scene in a speakeasy where someone orders "six shots of giggle-water." This film felt to me like twelve."

Brain Viner of Daily Mail said: "The fantastical parallel universe created by J K Rowling never felt quite so in tune with our own as it does in this exhilarating Harry Potter spin-off."

John DeFore of the Hollywood Reporter said: "Whether or not the ensemble chemistry ever clicks to the extent it did for Harry, Hermione and Ron, Rowling clearly has an endless supply of lore left to share with those invested in her world."

Robbie Collin of the Telegraph said: "'I don't think I'm dreaming and I ain't got the brains to make this up,' Jacob boggles when he realises the magical world he's suddenly swamped by is for real. Fortunately for us, Rowling does. Keep it coming."