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Thoughts on The Golden Compass
Short version: I enjoyed it. They cut quite a bit out, but that's to be expected when you're making a film from a book, especially from a book in which that much happens. It probably helps that I read the book awhile ago and am therefore fuzzy on a lot of the details. So even if it cut stuff out and moved stuff around, it still felt true to the spirit of the book to me.
The casting was perfect. The girl they found to play Lyra inhabited the character just right, and I pictured Mrs. Coulter as Nicole Kidman even as I was reading the book. Probably the best surprise was Sam Elliot as Lee Scorsby. I also think they did an excellent job with the daemons, Pan in particular. The bears were also well-done, although I was a little less impressed with them -- I liked how their speech had the feel of roaring, but the mouth movements were pretty far off. They did move like bears, though, and overall the film was stunning visually -- beautifully realized steampunk elements like the airships, the way that daemons exploded into Dust when their people died, Lyra reading the Compass. It's one of the most appealing films just to sit and watch that I've seen in a long time.
So, as always after watching a movie based on a book, now I'm feeling the need to read the books again... As if I didn't have enough to read already!
The casting was perfect. The girl they found to play Lyra inhabited the character just right, and I pictured Mrs. Coulter as Nicole Kidman even as I was reading the book. Probably the best surprise was Sam Elliot as Lee Scorsby. I also think they did an excellent job with the daemons, Pan in particular. The bears were also well-done, although I was a little less impressed with them -- I liked how their speech had the feel of roaring, but the mouth movements were pretty far off. They did move like bears, though, and overall the film was stunning visually -- beautifully realized steampunk elements like the airships, the way that daemons exploded into Dust when their people died, Lyra reading the Compass. It's one of the most appealing films just to sit and watch that I've seen in a long time.
So, as always after watching a movie based on a book, now I'm feeling the need to read the books again... As if I didn't have enough to read already!
I
I shall wait for the DVD before I see the film. Crowds, even small ones, remain anathema to me. I wish this first dramatization were being more successful becsuae I would like all the books to be filmed. The second is so much more coherent and moving than the first. Ah...
Re: I
Maybe it's just that the mixed reviews lowered my expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. Among my group that saw it, the only real complaint was that the final battle dragged on a bit long. I have heard that much of the anti-religion material was cut from the movie; maybe so, but I think the theme still came through quite clearly.
I
Yes, the reviews certainly do not raise many hopes about the film. I am encouraged by your comments. I hear many of the religious bits were excised, too. However, the first book is not all that explicit about the anti-religious tone - it basically contents itself with naming the theocracy and showing it to be villainous. It is in the second book that the killing of g-d is broached unmistakably.
Re: I
No worries, no disrespect taken. :) Really, I love the first two books about equally. I was less taken with the third, but I think I may have read it too quickly because I remember almost nothing of the details. Hence, the re-read.
I
Right! I can see no way at all to do the remaining books devoid of the anti-clericism. I read that the director and producer hoped to slip this first film through and have a great success in order to have the flexibility to be more true to the books in the sequels. Too bad it is not doing all that well at the box office.