I saw it last night too.
The visuals were pretty good, but IMO, it skipped around a little too much. I've read the books, so I already feel for these characters, but it didn't seem to me that the general audience was given enough time to get to know the kids or why things were the way things were.
I dunno, maybe it was aimed more towards kids (it is classified as a childrens book), but I do think they could have fit in more explanatory dialogue to fill it out a bit.
All in all, I'm glad I saw it at the theatre, but I really hope they step it up for future films.