Me and my friend went to see it the day it came out... Went to the second showing but it was still Matinee price (which was nice!) and there were only about 15 other people in a theather that normally can seat close to 600. WHICH WAS NICE!
Anyway... The movie, for kids, I suppose could be seen as suspenceful, kinda scary, dark, and quite mean, in a way... But for me and my friend, none of these things were having any affect on us. I spent most of the movie trying to figure out the plot, why the Count was doing what he was he doing (other than for the inheritance,) if he was the one burning the houses all the time, is he part of some larger, and until now, unseen Cult? Why burn houses?
I've never read the books so I was trying to watch it for basic artistic value and plot. I've never been a big fan of Computer Generated special effects ( I played MUDs for crying out loud, graphics don't impress me much.) But I have to say, the graphics in this movie were very well done -- and one of the things that kept me interested in the movie. I guess you could say it had a surrealist quality about it. My buddy and I agreed that it was like watching the first Harry Potter movie, if you didn't read the books (after the first one) all you got out of the first movie was an introduction.
Here are the characters, here are the good guys, the bad guys, the guys you're not quite sure about. You only know about a little about the kids parents in this movie, as in the 1st HP movie. You find out a bit about the "enemy," but nothing much.
Although, if they make a second addition to the series, I'll definitely go and see it, it seems like a movie series with alot of potential (I know the books are a long series and already have shown THEIR potential) but it's different when it comes to a movie.
I give it 3.5/5.
PS: Yeah, that girl was smoking.