The Golden Compass
Like the subject says, I got from the movie exactly what I’ve expected: Great looks and a nice, but not particularily interesting story. I am deeply in love with the landscapes, the battles and the clothing design (all totally stolen out of Lord of the Rings if you ask me XD), also I love the actress for Serafina Pekkala, one of my favourite characters, as well as Nicole Kidman’s role. She’s so splendid as femme fatale who has a secret love for her daughter and her former lover, hehe.
At the same time, I’m not particularily fond of the actress of Lyra. In fact, she is a really good actress (much more than Emma Watson, oh God), but I just somehow dislike her looks… she would be so charming and irresistible if she would look like Emma Watson – I feel so sorry for her.
Since I will only be talking about superficial things today, because I completely forgot the story of the book (and thus cannot compare anything anyways): I don’t really like how the alethiometer looks like. I have expected it to look much more complex, beautiful and fragile at the same time… especially since I have dreamt of having an alethiometer like that, hehe.
The best part, and what made us enjoy the movie the most, was actually rather silly: The icebears are so lovely! For some reason, seeing the huge, white, furry butt of an Iorek Byrnison made me laugh so hard, and every time I saw this butt moving around, I had to laugh again. Aaah, that was so much fun, and it’s so stupid of me XD
In sum: If you like the looks of the trailer and the promo pictures, and/or are a die-hard “His Dark Materials” fan like me, you might enjoy the movie. Otherwise, it’s just another Lord of the Rings copy that somehow does not work out well.
I’ve heard the opinions on this movie were somewhat mixed, with the likes of Empire giving it bit of a panning. Like you, I’m a huge fan of the books (HDM is often lumped along with the Harry Potter novels but I reckon it’s in a completely different league) so I’m a little apprehensive about the lacklustre script and weak ending. That said, I can always go back to the books to revisit the story so if the film captures even just the visual side of things that ought to be enough to make it enjoyable.
It’s still showing in British cinemas right now so if nothing else, I’ll go along to see the armoured bears in action. Bear cavalry FTW! *laughs*
I just read the Wikipedia article about the movie and I expect a lot of the mixed reviews stemming from the endless discussion about anti-catholicism – which is a point that I have not cared for at all so far. I am somewhat interested in religion and I liked the criticism of religion, but it was always only one point amongst others in the story for me.
This also brings me to the comparison with Harry Potter: Even though I love Harry Potter, I really wished Rowling would have kept it a children’s story. Most of her attempts to put political and religious complexity into it seemed rather pretentious and not particularily well-thought for me. Also, I hated Harry Potter’s “We will destroy the bad in the world”-kind of fighting spirit. Even though I never considered “His Dark Materials” a deep story, Pullman’s trilogy is much different indeed and its characters much more intriguing. I guess this also comes from Pullman’s intellectual background; I read an interview with him in which he said a few nice things about the perception of religion and the world. I could never imagine J. K. Rowling to have such a thoughtful and unusual opinion about things. Even the elements – the concept of the alethiometer is so beautiful and interesting while the snatch is mainly just cute and pretty.
PS. Now I also read the Wikipedia article about Eva Green, the actress of Serafina Pekkala. What an interesting woman! Now I want to watch “The Dreamers” as well, and “The Last Tango in Paris”…
You forgot to mention the groping motions we made, every time their butts came into view! The disturbingly cute little button-tails!