The inset story about the girl who uses her truth-seeing to save the rightful king of the armored bears is a good one. It tells well, is very exciting, and is gorgeous to watch.
The rest of the movie feels (to me, and I have not read the books) unmotivated, stale, and boring. It's not quite incomprehensible, but it's certainly a long walk from being satisfying. The ending was so terribly unfinished that I came out of the theater feeling like I'd been ripped off.
I don't really care what the books say or do -- this is a movie that could have stood on its own had the filmmakers bothered to make it do that. Sure, it would have upset fans of the book (I remember being miffed when Jackson left out Tom Bombadil) but it's entirely possible to tell a damn good epic fantasy in 110 minutes without leaving off an actual ending.
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The rest of the movie feels (to me, and I have not read the books) unmotivated, stale, and boring. It's not quite incomprehensible, but it's certainly a long walk from being satisfying. The ending was so terribly unfinished that I came out of the theater feeling like I'd been ripped off.
I don't really care what the books say or do -- this is a movie that could have stood on its own had the filmmakers bothered to make it do that. Sure, it would have upset fans of the book (I remember being miffed when Jackson left out Tom Bombadil) but it's entirely possible to tell a damn good epic fantasy in 110 minutes without leaving off an actual ending.