Saw it today. Very nice, but they did stray from the book quite a number of times.
WARNING: SPOILERS. Starts off minor, then gets more spoilerish.
Spoiler Below One particular scene I noticed was the missing of the tomb scene with the daemons inscribed in the medallions. Not that major, but it did give something to do for Lyra.
Spoiler Below Another scene, a bit more major, was the rescuing of the kid while in the Arctic region. Originally, the kid died, but now they gave hope for him. Also, he wasn't carrying a fish in the movie, he was carrying a cloth. o_O
Spoiler Below Huge deal with the Bear Kingdom. First off, this scene happened way too early. Second, Iofur's name was changed, and I'm not going to bother remembering what he was called. Third, Iofur never beat Iorek in a fight, Iorek killed a bear in a normal challenge which Iofur made it so the other bear would not stop fighting, not poisoning the king. Lastly, the armor that Iofur had, while very nice, was supposed to be stripped of easily due to his obsession of thinking he was human, putting on poor metal armor. Of course, they also kept out that Iofur had his chest ripped open and his heart eaten, but I was shocked when I saw his jaw knocked off. That image is forever burned into my mind. Oh, and the GOB Quarters was supposed to happen before, not after. Oh well, it made up for that with one of the most brilliant battles I have ever seen in a movie.
Spoiler Below Finally... the ending. While Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring actually went into The Two Towers (At least that's what I heard), the movie ENDED TOO ****ING EARLY. WHAT THE HELL?!! The book ended with Roger's death opening a portal in the Aurora, but here they're still sailing on Lee's boat! The book had an excellent cliffhanger, and this... is it supposed to make it end happily? AUGH!