Re: Format
I have to look at it from the standpoint are "what are the odds this method could end up in a disaster"? Live action looks to me like a 95% disaster. Whereas I give CG a 50/50 chance. Some CG work has been marvelous and some has been horrific, but usually the latter ended up that way because it was the story that was terrible. Just get some reasonable talent (artistic talent, not just technical talent) in your CG staff, and the elves could come out looking OK. Go the extra mile of getting some of the best of the field, and it could be outright stunning.
2D animation could work too, but I personally fear that it might end up being very disney-esque, since that's what most US animators are trained for. Not that Disney art is horrid. It just has a degree of "camp" to it that I'd rather not see in EQ.
Re: The Inevitable screw-up
It's not going to be like the books. Just isn't. We all know this. THe question is just what they violate and what they are true to.
I'm sort of assuming they'll render the character's personalities in such a way that they become depth-less archetypes. But who knows, I can always be pleasantly surprised.
Re: What the story contains
This is the area where I still have a little bit of fight in me, so to speak. I still think that the first book can stand on its own as a movie, but I"m pretty sure that the movie will be either books 1-4 or 1-8. Because the story in book 1 is, well, a love story and a story of culture clash and it's a subtler story in some ways. And Holly wood wants more action and drama than that. Nevermind that it's the subtler stories about people that get oscar's...we all know genre stories have no hope of Oscar's anyways, so might as well just pile on the action scenes.
...tho' if they add explosions, I'mna throw rotten eggs at the theatre screen.