Golden Compass
Dev, the little woman, and I haven’t had the chance to go out for movie night in a while so last night was an extra treat for me. I was looking forward to seeing The Golden Compass as it was ever since what’s-his-putz started whining about it, and having started the third book of the His Dark Materials trilogy yesterday I was really set to go see it.
Since I’m not much of a critic I can’t give a whole lot of insight beyond the fact that I really enjoyed the movie and hope it does well. Visually I couldn’t have been more pleased, the acting was solid, and they followed the story pretty well. Yeah, they re-arranged stuff a bit, but you have to do that when you don’t want a three hour long movie. So, yeah, movie great, but as per usual I think the book is better. But that’s OK…the book is always better.
So pick up the freaking book, too. 
Don said,
January 2nd, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Having just seen the movie recently without having read any of the books beforehand, I offer the following talking points:
1.) I see why the Catholic League was up in arms. But, hey, that’s the cost of living in a free society - you have to let people you disagree with speak. Someday Bill Donohue will learn that. I’ve also learned that the books are even less subtle in their attacks on religion than the movie was.
2.) I thought that the pace was very slow (and almost boring) until the fight between the armored bears. Then it picked up dramatically, perhaps too much so. More a problem of direction than story.
3.) Whatever Nicole Kidman is doing to her face, she should’ve stopped three treatments ago.
4.) How many more movies are Daniel Craig and Eva Green going to do together?!
It was interesting, but even if this movie does well enough to warrant them making movies out of the rest of the trilogy, I’m not so sure I’d rush to the theater to see them.
A friend of mine saw the movie (having read the books) and enjoyed the movie except for the actress who played Lyra. She didn’t go into any specifics as to why, though. Your thoughts, good sir?
NihilXAOS said,
January 7th, 2008 at 9:53 am
1) I do find it funny that this guy has appointed himself as the defender of the Church. I thought that was part of the Pope’s job.
2) I didn’t mind the pace much, but I think that’s because I really liked the setting and spent the first half of the movie just oohing and aahing at the sets and costumes.
3) I think that may be continued fallout from having been married to a Scientologist, but I’m not sure.
4) I can take or leave Daniel Craig myself, but if they keep casting them together I’ll probably keep watching. She’s cute.
I’ll probably go see the others just to see how they go about it. That and I’d love to see what they make the mulefa look like.
I’m not sure what issues people would have with Dakota Blue Richards, and I refuse to admit any expertise when it comes to little girls, so all said I didn’t mind her at all. Looks-wise she wasn’t too far off of my image of her from reading the books, and I didn’t think she did a bad job acting. That said, though, I understand that a lot of people have particular things that set them off about stories, movies, and actors so it could be something neither of us would notice, but would drive the other person completely crazy.