I know who the writer was. Well, who the writer was supposed to be. Instead we got Karey Kirkpatrick, who I was referring to, who wasn't able to pull off another Chicken Run and certainly not maintain the spirit of the books, IMO. Adams was long dead by the time the movie went into production and the screenplay received a lot of rework. Maybe it would have been worse without the rework, I don't know. But I do know that I felt totally ripped off after having seen it. The casting and direction didn't do much to help either.

It wasn't as good as Spaceballs, IMO. All in all I'd say that the movie would appeal more to someone who wasn't a fan of the books. This makes sense for obvious reasons, such as selling movie tickets to a wide audience. Though it's obvious many fans did also like it, I just wasn't one of them. Oh, and I do like all the actors in other roles - very much so in fact.