I hope the film is good but we'll see.  The novel reads very much like a technical manual.  The writer had his heart in the math and science but less in the characters.  I thought they were a bit thin.  Don't get me wrong, the amount of work that went into figuring out obstacles and finding scientific(workable)solutions was amazing.  
But I don't see it working for film the same way.
Still, there is enough of a plot to put together an interesting entertaining film.  They just have to pull it out of the math.
And yes--a lot of people LOVE the novel and the puzzles that Watley has to solve.
My eyes glazed over during much of that.