Here is your chance to talk about if the characters (especially Rudi) were done justice.

Dirk was fine.

Al (while obviously not looking the part) was fine. I even thought he looked bulky enough in certain scenes when he was wearing that red shirt playing soccer. He and MM definitely had good chemistry, and their friendship was believable. I think Al would have trusted him a little more, though, if Dirk was completely convinced the ironclad was in the desert. Beliving him or not, though, Al was right at his side the whole way.

Rudi: awful. As the dundering comic relief character required by many movies, he was good. But as the Rudi Gunn developed by Clive Cussler, worst ever.

Sandecker had his moments, but lacked the spitfiery attitude envisioned in the books. Sandecker would never let a measly state department peon get away with ignoring him, and would have taken his evidence directly to the president. Clearly, movie-goers would not have understood such power. However, the plot was true to his character in that he tried to move on his own to get Dirk and Al out. Macy was ok at times, but let me down at others (probably as written by the script though).

Eva was definitely not what I pictured in the books, but probably because I didn't pay attention to he fact that she was from Spain. I'm not a big Penelope Cruz fan in general, but she did an admirable job playing the heroic female.

Massarde: Awful

Kazim: Not evil enough, but ok.

Modibo (sp?)(rebel leader): I really liked his character a lot. I don't think he was in the book. In fact, in the book, Kazim's henchmen who attacked Dirk were described as Tuaregs, but in the movie the Tuaregs were the people fighting against Kazim, right?

Hopper: No real opinion.

Who am I missing?