I was very excited when I saw Tim Curry stalk onto the screen, and Jeremy Irons as the Patrician was excellent. That is pretty representative of this adaptation: the actors are generally quite good but some (in fact most) of the plot changes are frankly awful. The producers seem to have gone out of their way to remove as much of the humour from the story as possible, while adding in a lot of generic fantasy nonsense that is precisely what Pratchett was satirizing in the original. The addition of just a couple of the weirder scenes from the book (like the aeroplane scene) would have vastly improved things.
Unlike other adaptations I have seen (like the BBC's Gormenghast), the added dialogue is poor, and the chummy character-building scenes between Rincewind and Twoflower seem forced and painful. Having said that, the costumes and scenery are good, with a very Lord of the Rings feel (in fact they seem to have pinched the music). The second part is much stronger than the first, so don't be too discouraged. It is still worth watching the three-odd hours to see how things are adapted, but those new to Pratchett should not take this as representative of his work.
Overall, it could have been so much worse, but I was expecting greatness, and I was disappointed.
Unlike other adaptations I have seen (like the BBC's Gormenghast), the added dialogue is poor, and the chummy character-building scenes between Rincewind and Twoflower seem forced and painful. Having said that, the costumes and scenery are good, with a very Lord of the Rings feel (in fact they seem to have pinched the music). The second part is much stronger than the first, so don't be too discouraged. It is still worth watching the three-odd hours to see how things are adapted, but those new to Pratchett should not take this as representative of his work.
Overall, it could have been so much worse, but I was expecting greatness, and I was disappointed.