Questionable mix of very interesting scenes

Rating: 7/10 (13 April 2008)

First of all, I haven't read the book. This is a movie I watched in 2008. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about this movie is "great parts, doesn't hold too well as a whole". Why is that?
Great parts: there is no single scene I disliked in the whole movie; everything is presented in a rather pleasant, artistic way. There is no need to further describe why those scenes are so interesting, many have done it before.
Questionable as a whole: when I watch a movie, what I am looking forward to is being told a decent story in an entertaining or at least interesting way. This movie was certainly entertaining and interesting.
Was the story decent? I would almost be tempted to reply "what story?". I won't even bother to mention the aspects of the "story" I disliked or didn't understand. There is no reasonable character development and the transitions between scenes are so unclear. I ended up guessing what was happening, but the movie itself does not explain anything.
For these reasons, I did not care about the characters and I didn't fully understand the motives behind their actions.
May be the best way I can describe this movie is by saying "a 2 hour-long trailer".
I'm thrilled, looking forward to a version of this that will explain what is happening.
I gave this 7 out of 10. I could have given 8, or 6, this doesn't matter. I enjoyed it, but feel it could be so much deeper, because as others have mentioned here, each scene might carry some depth, but as a whole, it doesn't.
On a final note, other words that come to my mind when I think about this movie are "sadly empty". "Empty" because there isn't a decent story and "sadly" because I really wish I could understand those amazing characters. Isn't it awful not to be able to feel compassion for the ones in pain? May be this was made on purpose, I don't know.