Golden Compass Review
Not impressed, kiddies, not impressed.
If you're going to make an adaptation of a very intricate, sublte and beautiful book, then you have to make a movie that is just as daringly different as all the stupid fantasy fluff that gets shoved at children these days. You can't take a series of books that were made famous by challenging religious authority, that eerily told of the seduction and kidnapping of small children for religious experiments and focused on the racism and economic discrimination of a white patriarchal society and boil it down to a very easy-to-digest movie.
I don't believe in the "think of it as a movie, not as a movie of the book" line of thinking applying in this case. Because, if you really want to look at it that way, then WHY make the movie at all? There are enough sappy fantasy movies out there, who needs another? You don't have to take a great series of books and castrate them of everything incendiary, you don't have to completely circumvent all of the issues that made this series so controversial just to hit the holiday rush and make a few bucks. Even the previews boasted many other movies rushing to fill the heart-warming holiday fantasy flick need, so really, why do we need a limp interpretation of The Golden Compass?
I won't ruin the movie for others that wish to see it by divulging plot. I will say, however, that no matter all the poorly-implemented excursions from the book and the terrible plot progression effected me, there were a few things they got right. Lyra was spot-on from the books. I'm so glad that Dakota Blue Richards had the maturity, for lack of acting experience, to pull off such a great character. Sam Elliot and Kathy Bates were also spot-on as Lee Scorsby and Hester. Hell, even Sir Ian McKellen did a wonderful job with Iorek. The acting on the whole was fairly impressive, especially dealing with such a weak and pussy-footing script.
This review from CNN pretty much hits all of my thoughts on the movie as a whole
sigh. And I'll say it here. Part of me kind of hopes this movie doesn't make enough money to warrant a second and third movie. I'd rather I just got to forget this movie was ever made and go on loving the books instead of having to watch the next two books be massacred and chopped up into nothing special.
If you're going to make an adaptation of a very intricate, sublte and beautiful book, then you have to make a movie that is just as daringly different as all the stupid fantasy fluff that gets shoved at children these days. You can't take a series of books that were made famous by challenging religious authority, that eerily told of the seduction and kidnapping of small children for religious experiments and focused on the racism and economic discrimination of a white patriarchal society and boil it down to a very easy-to-digest movie.
I don't believe in the "think of it as a movie, not as a movie of the book" line of thinking applying in this case. Because, if you really want to look at it that way, then WHY make the movie at all? There are enough sappy fantasy movies out there, who needs another? You don't have to take a great series of books and castrate them of everything incendiary, you don't have to completely circumvent all of the issues that made this series so controversial just to hit the holiday rush and make a few bucks. Even the previews boasted many other movies rushing to fill the heart-warming holiday fantasy flick need, so really, why do we need a limp interpretation of The Golden Compass?
I won't ruin the movie for others that wish to see it by divulging plot. I will say, however, that no matter all the poorly-implemented excursions from the book and the terrible plot progression effected me, there were a few things they got right. Lyra was spot-on from the books. I'm so glad that Dakota Blue Richards had the maturity, for lack of acting experience, to pull off such a great character. Sam Elliot and Kathy Bates were also spot-on as Lee Scorsby and Hester. Hell, even Sir Ian McKellen did a wonderful job with Iorek. The acting on the whole was fairly impressive, especially dealing with such a weak and pussy-footing script.
This review from CNN pretty much hits all of my thoughts on the movie as a whole
sigh. And I'll say it here. Part of me kind of hopes this movie doesn't make enough money to warrant a second and third movie. I'd rather I just got to forget this movie was ever made and go on loving the books instead of having to watch the next two books be massacred and chopped up into nothing special.