DON'T watch this movie if you haven't read & liked the books

Rating: 7/10 (26 March 2012)

I went to see this movie by accident, so I had no preconceived idea nor did I have any idea this comes out from a book series.
Let's put it straight: As a standalone movie, this is ABYSMAL! Just when reading the other reviews, I learned that the movie is an adaptation of a trilogy of books (and even a bad one, apparently). That actually might explains why the movie made no sense at all to me.
The characters are the most shallow I have seen in years. The story is nothing original and looks like it could fit on a post-it. Filming is lackluster and special effects (if any) are no better than a standard TV show. Action is nearing zero and the ending is just plain ridiculous, even as a (non-)cliffhanger for further movies.
Apparently, A LOT of context was left out of the movie from the books, which is hardly excusable as the movie is long and slooowwww, so it can only be described as support material for the books, not as a standalone movie of any value.
Bottom line: If you didn't read the books, don't even consider going to see this "thing".