Eye candy, but something's missing

Rating: 6/10 (1 April 2014)

Having never read the book, it's hard to compare the two. But still I got the feeling something was missing.
All through the first three quarters of the movie, I found myself wondering what happened from scene to scene. It all seemed so disconnected, so like the jagged edge of a saw and although the special effects were spectacular at times, it could not capture my full attention.
After reading some of the reviews, I understood why. There was indeed something missing. Only those parts of the book that could be converted to movie were used, the rest was skipped or deleted, and that was exactly what I experienced watching the movie.
That doesn't mean, however, that this was a bad movie. On the contrary, a great performance of Asa Butterfield and the last quarter of the movie made more than up for it. On the whole it was barely satisfactory, so 5.5 out of 10.