About 10 minutes into this movie, my husband and I looked at each other like "what the hell, this is so cheesy". We hung in there though, and I'm glad we did, because the movie and acting got much better after about 30 minutes. It is definitely an over-the-top rendition of this novel, and I don't thing the 3D was necessary-but I'm not really a 3D fan even in action movies. They also used a very modern soundtrack including rap, which didn't work for me. All of the main actors do a very good job, and despite the visual liberties the movie takes, the script sticks to Fitzgerald's novel pretty closely.