I’ve loved the first book for twenty years and have reread it many times. I really enjoy the latest movie adaptation. Of all the film/TV adaptations I’ve seen, the recent ones are far and away the best. I agree with the other commenter who said they are similar in quality to Peter Jackson’s original LOTR adaptations.
The director has said that he purposely truncated the Alia storyline because he thinks it’s unfilmable. He said there’s no way to get a small child who is able to effectively portray Alia, and the alternative of having a CG character would just be cartoonish and distracting.
At first I was also disappointed that he left out most of that storyline, but after I heard his reasoning, I’m totally on his side. Alia has always been one of my favorite parts of the book, and my least favorite parts of the film/TV adaptations. I think he made the right choice.
P