You’d think with all that palaver about novels becoming reality and so on that this would have a bit more fun with metatextual jokes, but no, the film is profoundly single note.

Many of the set-pieces are impressive, possessing an immersive sense of scale, but characterisation inevitably relies on ciphers and stereotypes.

Entertainment aplenty on occasion, but not much more

Despite my enjoyment, I must concede that making the dozens of viewers in my position the target audience can hardly be called a sound adaptation strategy.