Comments | userj: The Golden Compass (semi spoilers)

userj

The Golden Compass (semi spoilers)

Dec 12, 2007 12:24

Hey, I was pleasantly surprised by The Golden Compass after all the negative reviews...

Overall, it was a lot like the 1st Harry Potter movie. If you've read the book you'll probably like it, if you haven't you may be confused/overwhelmed. Also if you've read the book and you can't stand book-movie adaptations ever obviously you won't like it.

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Comments 4

luke123 December 13 2007, 19:27:10 UTC

It's weird they said they cut down the anti religious sentiment as I feel they made it MORE anti-religious. Like in the book killing someone is a BIG deal, even for the magisterium. There's all that elaboration on how Malone's assassin had spent his lifetime doing self flaggulation and in isolation just for the ability to sin once in the form of murder. Then in the movie, they try to poison Lord Asriel with not even a blink of the eye! In the book, Lord Asriel and those who study dust are known as "rogue theologians" and in the movie they're known as "free-thinkers." Was the "they're playing down the anti-religious elements" just a publicity stunt to get people to watch or something? I mean they still speak of the "Authority" and label things "heresy"... it's pretty clear ( ... )

userj December 15 2007, 18:02:14 UTC

Thanks, yeah it sounds like we feel pretty similarly. I think I benefitted from the fact that I hadn't read the book in a long time. This movie was really good at capturing the general idea, but it does depart in some respects. Overall, I think it's a great visual companion to the book. I'm hopeful as with the Potter movies, that they will get better and better (the big one for Potter was changing directors).

I'm DYING to see the ending... that's my favorite moment in all the books... I went back and watched some trailers - parts of those scenes are in the trailers! Ahh...

luke123 December 15 2007, 20:50:57 UTC

haha yeah, I want to see the ending too! Some of the deviations I felt were improvements. Like Iorek having a contract with Lyra instead of John Faa TOTALLY makes sense, and the book should have been that way. I'm enjoying the livejournal and gmail chats as of late, but it makes me miss friends :(.

luke123 December 15 2007, 20:51:41 UTC

oh and TOTALLY agree on the music, especially during John Faa's speech... just HORRIBLELY off!