Here is my "review" from the movie review thread:
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - 8.5/10
First off, I fully admit you'd have to be a HP fan I think to fully enjoy the film. It really did a great job of taking you back into that universe and immersing you in it. I was nervous about how it would be going into the movie(s) not knowing the characters or the story line, but they did a pretty solid job of making you care about (most of) the characters pretty quickly -- certainly Eddie Redmayne's portrayal of Newt Scamander.
The storyline was pretty good but there were a few tangential subplots that sort of seemed wedged in there, but I think (hope?) that they are more of a setup for the following movies to help build the complete story arch. Lots of little hints back to the Harry Pottery storylines and characters which makes things fun and helps tie everything together. I'm VERY interested to see where they take the storyline and which characters carry through to the next films.
One thing that bugged me throughout the movie was Redmayne's in ability to stand up straight and actually look people in the eye. I get it, he's shy and awkward, but ti was annoying as hell how accentuated it was. Maybe it's just the angry dad in me... I dunnno.
Also, there's a surprise actor at the end of the movie. I won't spoil it. I wasn't took happy with it, as I just think it was unwarranted, but I was surprised they were able to keep it a secret -- at least I wasn't aware of it, nor were a lot of Potter nerds in the theater from the sound of it.