Caters to its fans, but there's enough there for the rest of us too

Rating: 7/10 (25 November 2016)

This movie has a great cast and a very interesting setting. The cast inhabited their characters and the universe well, with Redmayne making his character feel more sincere and interesting that it probably has any right to be. The setting, New York in the 20s, could have been used a bit more, but I guess it's a fine line between too little and too much.
The story itself is just fine, where the clumsy hero manages to make a mess for himself, at the same time that something more sinister is going on. It's obvious that they are building up for a story to lasts many movies, and mostly they do a good job making a story that feels self contained, but that also leads into a bigger picture.
My main problem with this movie, is the side-quests (to borrow a term from the gaming world). There's quite a lot of time spent on them retrieving beasts, something that is only partly related to the underlying conflict of the movie. I'm sure these scenes are loads of fun for those who are into the Harry Potter-universe, as you can see the creatures come to life. But as I am not really that engaged in that world, I got tired of that part of the movie pretty fast.
That said, the rest of the movie is enough to make it interesting, if you like these kinds of movies. And I'm sure this is a movie that many people will end up seeing many, many times.