I watched this movie in cinemas when it first came out, and actually enjoyed it quite a lot (I was 13/14 years old, which I believe was the target audience? Teen females?)
I wasn't satisfied because it left a lot of mysteries unsolved, so I went out and read the books, which cleared up a lot. It really got me hooked because I wanted to know /more/.
And if you ask me, the way the story is told differs (i.e. a lot of mysteries in the end) mostly because, if you read the books, you notice the story picks up right where the former book ends. (And all the books were published within two years, wow that is some speedy writing right there) Not like with Harry Potter, where you have several weeks between the end of the schoolyear and the middle/end of the summer holidays.
The acting? Eh, I've definitely seen worse. Could be better at some points, but definitely not so bad you're constantly cringing. (Unless you're used to high-quality acting at all points in a movie. Then I guess you'd really notice it)
Clichés? Especially during my second viewing right now, I certainly found several, but the movie has enough novelties so that the clichés really aren't that bad or noticeable.
So while the movie does have several flaws (some of which probably come from not being a blockbuster movie with a huge budget) I enjoyed it.
Maybe I'm a bit biased because of how much I liked the books, but I definitely adore the story, the time-travelling and the interactions with the past and the characters in different times. And if you ask me, the BIG plot twist at the end of the trilogy made reading the entire thing worth it. The movie differs quite a bit from the book, though the changes are more exciting than annoying.
I should probably mention that I first watched the German version when it was released, and the English dub a lot later. The German version is better. The dialogue works better, the characters seem much more natural and it's funnier. (Seriously, I cringed at how the lines were changed and recited. Ugh, just... no. It doesn't work. At all.)
It has been 3 years since I properly watched this movie and read the books, but I still like it.
So if you're a teen, enjoy time-travel (and romance I guess, I personally didn't watch it for that) and want some entertainment, then heck yeah, go check it out.
A hint: Don't watch only one movie at a time. You're left frustrated and mad because you want to know more, because there are so many things that haven't been dealt with. My tip would be to either continue with the books or wait until all the movies have been released and then start a marathon.
Well this review is hilariously unstructured and I'm sorry if I went off on weird tangents, but kudos to you if you managed to read it all and got some information that's helpful to you. I'm not sure what people want to know about most, so I just threw in a bit of everything.
I'm going to watch the second movie now, since I missed it in cinemas, and if that holds up to standard, I will definitely see the third movie this year too.
