I concur with you Davem. For me, the CGI was anticipated, yet it surpassed expectations. But PJ's focus on the character development was a pleasant surprise that - yes strayed somewhat from the books, but provoked (to me) much thought on the internal struggle. That is hard to pull off. If the internal struggle was the primary theme of a film, one would wind up making a movie with people standing around voicing their internal thoughts to the viewer - a 'la Dune
