I’d never seen this movie or read the book. A friend had it so I watched it. I remember at the time the main critisism was a) the creepy people and b) the departure from the book.

Having never read the book I can’t comment on B. But as for the creepy people: yup, they’re pretty creepy alright. They look very human but the nonverbal communication is of course lacking. Where these CGI creations move smoothly from one facial expression to the next real human faces are extremely complex things. Same with the body movements. But apart from the close ups it looks good. REAL good. There’s an IMAX version out now, and there are some real mindblowing shots and effects. I freely admit to being a sucker for anything CGI but I found this movie was enjoyable in addition to the great CGI. There’s some singing but thankfully most of the grating jolly christmas songs were scored under the end titles.