Caught a matinee of this today, it was good. They cut out about half the book, but it was a good movie. Some parts were a bit kidish, but it is a kids movie.

Buckbeak looked pretty damn cool

Actually, I was thinking I would not take kids to see this, as it's rather scarey at times.

I have many gripes with it, and I wonder how anyone who hasn't read the book could follow the plot, it was so choppy. But I enjoyed it.

Random Gripe: What was up with that werewolf? It looked like something from Quake.

By far, the best of the 3 movies.

Precisely because it was least like the book.

Instead of slavishly following the book as the other two did, even putting in unimportant parts, this cut down to the essential, film-friendly plot, and added a lot of visual elements (like the whomping willow sequences, which were superb, and the giant clock, and others I forgot.) The magic, instead of being "ooh-look-at-me" was subtler and in the background, but accomplished even more impressively.

I quite enjoyed that movie.

Oh, and now that the Olsen twins have achieved their majority, our friendly neighborhood pedophiles can camp out on this page:

*Warning:
I strongly advise those who are more sensitive to strong language and crude humor...do not click the link*
http://www.ethyr.dark-omens.com/emma.htm
;)

Watching the movie for the first time, I could literally feel everything they cut out of the storyline.

I wanted to see/hear it laid out exactly like hte book, and in doing so, I missed how the movie put it all together.

Information that I thought wasn't int he movie, was in there...just presented in a different way.

I saw the movie a second time and this time viewed it from a person who has never read the books perspective...and found it to be more solid.