I read the book, and I knew it wouldn't be as good as the book, but I didn't expect it to be quite this bad. If you haven't read the book, I don't know if you'd be able to follow it. Not that it'd really matter, I read the book and still really didn't follow it. It's barely the same story. And I think they might've been a bit tight on budget. The characters didn't even look like they were described in the book, they changed hair colors, etc. The elf didn't even have pointy ears!

I rate movies on a scale of 1 to 4:
4: See this movie in the theater right away.
3: See this movie in the theater at a discount or a second run.
2: Wait for the DVD.
1: Don't even bother.

Based on that, I'd rate this movie at a 1.5. Rent the DVD if you read the book and you're curious, otherwise don't bother.