I am a longtime fan of SATC but I felt that by removing the girls from NYC took some of the luster out of the story. It has often been said that the city is the fifth character and something was lost in translation by taking the girls out of it. I love the opening sequence with Carrie talking about NY while the Alicia Keys "Empire State" song was playing. I felt like much of the Middle East stuff could have been edited and this should have been a 90 min movie. It was exactly what I expected from the film, but I was still disappointed...