just seen the golden compass and...

L

lady_armand2

New member
it was great. It was awkward to begin with and it has room for a lot more but it was very enjoyable. The scenes are great and nicole as Coulter is perfect.
 
I understand what you mean however, it does not damage how I feel about the books. Its very difficult adapt such a story easily to the screen. I also felt the watering down was patronizing and the need for things to be explained to the general audience AND the lack of focus on the frienRABhip between coram and lyra.

Even still, I left the cinema wanting more and have accepted it for what it is. I am more worried about the subtle knife because of the lack of drama in the book.

Some of the scenes were nothing short of fantastic. Especially the bolvangar section.:)
 
Not read the book (tried three times to get past chapter 1 and failed every time). Obviously the books have stuff going for them, too many intelligent people have told me to think otherwise. But on the evidence of the film and chapter 1... sheesh.

All the Harry Potter films have been artistic faliures to a greater or lesser degree (IV was the worst, V was the least bad). Adapting dense novels to the screen is very, very hard, and every time 90% of the problems with the final film are right there in the screenplay.

Narnia worked well mainly because it was a short story. LOTR was nothing short of a miricle. The Golden Compass... I can't believe the other parts will be anything other than more disjointed jumbled stories, albeit with fabulous production design (and here it really was excellent).

Like others here, I think it would have been quite something to have seen Tom Stoppard's version. It's hard not to come to the conclusion that Hollywood is ruled by eedjits when it rejects what he did in favour of what we had from Chris Weitz. Hell, even his American Pie was a better structured move than this.
 
Maybe easier to criticise than praise. I thought the bears fight and the big fight at Bolvanger were superb. Lee Scorsby and Hester were just perfect. And Oxford looked like the most beautiful place in the world. :)
 
I loved lots about it (the general look, Dakota Blue RicharRAB, the daemons, the lanRABcapes...) but was really unsure about a few things (the general re-ordering of events in the story, the apparently reasonless renaming of the bear king, the glossing over of the religious aspects...) and absolutely HATED the way they ended it - WITHOUT THE ACTUAL ENDING!

I was really enjoying it up to the battle scene - I really like how the witches look, and I thought Serafina was beautiful and eerie (and didn't have NEARLY enough screen time) but the battle got very jumbled for me. And then it just ended! Without the real end! My friend and I just looked at each other with mouths open. We were both really thrown by the lack of ending, and we cannot see how the second film can start now...
 
There's a lot of good in it and I enjoyed it at the time. I liked the dialogue. It sounded affected but that's because they weren't English people in England, but in some parallel world speaking a language which isn't quite English. The SFX were very good, to the point where you wondered how they managed to train all those animals. It felt mature: it's no longer special to see rendered fur like it was in Monsters Inc. The atmosphere is good.

I had read the book before. I'm re-reading it now, and I'm surprised at just how much was changed. Generally Lyra is a lot less central and in control in the book, which makes it more plausible. The film is more of a children's film than the book is a children's book. The film does tend to hand you everything on a plate, which is a shame.
 
I've never read the books and didn't really know anything about the film until I went to see it and I enjoyed it a lot.

There was a lot of mythology to set up and all the characters. I thought they did well to get all that into one film. By the end I felt quite familiar with this fantasy world and looking forward to the next film.
 
Given this film and the disappointment of Narnia and I think it makes LOTR all the more impressive - I think that was a much harder trilogy to convert.

I read the books very long ago so don't remember them too much except I liked them, so the film won't be viewed with the book in the back of mind.
 
They are moving the aurora events to the second movie( if it is made). It would make up for the lack of action in the second book but It was best suited in this film.
 
I haven't read the book(s) but went to see the film and thought it wasn't very good at all. Everything felt rushed. Too many characters introduced and hardly any time to get to know them. (Daniel Craig practically had a cameo appearance - I think he was only in 4 scenes! And in one of them, he was shaving!)

The bear fight was great and I thought Nicole Kidman was great but other than that, nothing much happened. There are just too many questions asked and not enough answers.

And don't get me started on the ending.
 
That done to give the film a rounded ending if it doesn't make enough money to get a sequel. Like someone else said, assuming the second movie happens, then that ending will be how that movie starts.
 
My best friend and I spent the whole film going 'that didn't happen, WTF, that wasn't his name' and various other things whilst looking at each other in disbelief.
It felt horribley rushed. What a mockery of the book.
 
I agree it felt rushed, I was kind of surprised to find myself walking out of the cinema at quarter past four when I caught the 2pm showing at my local cinema yesterday. (Yes, the film had ended).

But I thought it was was about as faithful and true to the book as it possibly could have been. I never expected to see the book on film because it just would never have worked, but I was thoroughly enthralled and enchanted by what was on the screen.

It is a shame that it is performing below expectations but I hope they take a long term view and complete the trilogy.
 
I have just finished Northern Lights and thought it was a rubbish book and i usually like this sort of thing, the story is boring and all the rubbish about the Church, after finished reading it couldnt believe they had even bothered to make a film about it is so ordinary and bland. for the book i give it 5 out of 10. seen trailers for the filma nd somehow they have made it look all interesting and good so maybe i would enjoy film better than book.
 
The "rubbish about the church" is rather what made the book(s) groundbreaking. Whilst the metaphor and arguments about theocracy, science and free will are there in the film, they rather glossed over in order to allow all those shiny special effects, and to placate the Christian right.

*sigh*
 
Its not really that controversial in comparison to say the Da Vinci Code! Its not that 'groundbreaking' everyone knows how controlling the Church is and all they have changed is one wonder from 'sin' to ''dust'.
 
Back
Top