Grade: C+. Overall, the movie is enjoyable. Ther<wbr />e are certain instances when dramatic license is<wbr /> taken. As far as being faithful and/or harmonio<wbr />us with the book, some of those instances work o<wbr />ut and some do not. There are some places the mo<wbr />vie is not faithful to the book and, in my opini<wbr />on, license is taken in a way that makes no sign<wbr />ificant improvement to the movie over what the b<wbr />ooks says. There are important but not crucial e<wbr />lements that are completely left out, which to a<wbr /> Tolkien fan would have improved the movie signi<wbr />ficantly. Fandango does not allow me space to go<wbr /> into detail. The visuals for the movie are deli<wbr />ghtful, and the acting is pretty decent too. How<wbr />ever, key instances of a lack of faithfulness to<wbr /> the book, where to a reasonable mind it would n<wbr />ot have resulted in a poorer movie to do so, are<wbr /> the real downfall of this movie. If making a mo<wbr />vie is a craft, I would not rate this as high as<wbr /> the LOTR trilogy. Somewhat of a letdown for a T<wbr />olkien fan like myself.