I'm a Mom and I watched the series with my son, so we were very excited to see the movie. Well the casting was very good. But there was no real depth of the characters. They pronounced some of the characters names differently, which we found annoying through-out. Way too many moves to do any bending, another annoying trait. Also, there are a few traits in the movie that did not follow the series, and why that is is not clear. Maybe, if there is another movie, it may be time to change directors.
My children were big fans of the first film and were counting down the days to this release. We were a little disappointed that the movie did not follow the book as well as the first film, but we did enjoy it. The visual effects were excellent as were the costumes.