I read it back within days of when it was published. I liked the technical parts of the book (the possibility that "string-theory" might someday reconcile the General Theory of Relativity with Quantum Mechanics was interesting to me. While medieval history is interesting to me, it seemed in the book that there was an inordinate amount of arbitrary be-heading going on. The movie looks dead interesting to me.
I will definitely see the movie; but I imagine they will have to do the Hollywood thing with the plot, and leave the science out. A shame, because I remember mostly being fascinated with the science.