Planning on seeing this at the cinema with my daughters, but one's told me that she's been told that it'll make little sense if you're not familiar with the story/books.
Is this true? I've never read any of the books, only seen snippets of previous film/TV attempts. The girls, nothing.
Would we be able to just enjoy it as a film and understand it without it seeming overly complicated?
The books are nowhere near as complicated as some people make out.
I think a lot of it is down to current 'dumbing down' of absolutely everything.
The complexity and wordiness of the plot and descriptions is fairly standard for most meaty books created in the 50s, 60s and 70s.
Reading it again, it's actually a lot more accessible than I remember (But I was about 35 years younger last time I read it)
There are some mind-crushing books out there. You need to keep up with the houses and factions in the book, but it's no more complicated than that.
There is stuff that is happening that they have clearly removed due to brevity, so you'll be fine mate. It's been done very, very well. Lots of time used where it warrants it and plenty of action when it would benefit from it.