I amended my post to say "boring," because I felt (and pmat apparently agrees) that if a reader didn't know what had gone on in the book or why it had happened, the reader would wonder why a lot of the action went on or why he/she should care about any of it. However, if you actually *read* the book and didn't like it, you probably won't like the movie much either, because it's fairly true to the book, but with even fewer explanations. The pretty visuals are worth seeing, but you can do that by just waiting for the DVD instead of paying movie prices.

As a side note, I was of two minds about both the book and the movie. On the one hand, I didn't really care much for any of the characters at all. On the other hand, Pullman's fantasy is not, to my mind (though I know pmat disagrees) quite like any other fantasy I've ever read, and I'm inclined to give it a bit of slack for that reason alone. As esrblog would say, I admired the world-building behind the story. But then, I read the books as an adult (last year, to be precise). I can't imagine most children finding much to appeal to them, in the movie or the original books, despite the fact that my 10-year-old nephew wants the trilogy for Christmas.