The Golden Compass
I think that a lot of the negative reviews of it that I read were somewhat vain, and I still believe that. Though I do agree that there was some sloppiness in how it was put together--not enough to hurt its enjoyability as a movie, I don't think, though I do wonder how well it would make sense to someone who hasn't read the books. The art design is gorgeous though, and I think they did a good job making sure everyone had a daemon running around beside them. Also, Iorek was amazing, and I was not disappointed by him.
As for the changes they made to the story, several of them made me think "what the fuck are they doing...?" I mean, they completely rearranged the second half of the book and took gobs of stuff out. Though most of the changes still made sense in the context of trying to keep the length of the movie down, and also in the context of infodumping on the audience. And so far I don't mind the seemingly secular nature of the Magisterium. Mrs. Coulter even makes mention of original sin, just without using those words. Anyone with half a brain cell can figure it out.
I was mostly okay with the changes...until the very end. What the hell??? Without spoiling too much, I'll just say that they completely drop the entire last, and probably most important chapter of the book. Between making Asriel too...nice, and not really explaining what anyone's motives are or wtf all these people are doing in the north pole to begin with, and various other changes and omissions, they seemed to sort of write themselves into a corner. And when they got to the end they just couldn't figure out how to square the events of the last chapter with the rest of the movie. So they throw up their hands and say, "Well, if there's a sequel, it's somebody else's problem." I don't know if it's Chris Weisz's fault or the studio's fault, but in the overwrought effort to make the movie familyfundie friendly, somebody f'd up badly.
As for the changes they made to the story, several of them made me think "what the fuck are they doing...?" I mean, they completely rearranged the second half of the book and took gobs of stuff out. Though most of the changes still made sense in the context of trying to keep the length of the movie down, and also in the context of infodumping on the audience. And so far I don't mind the seemingly secular nature of the Magisterium. Mrs. Coulter even makes mention of original sin, just without using those words. Anyone with half a brain cell can figure it out.
I was mostly okay with the changes...until the very end. What the hell??? Without spoiling too much, I'll just say that they completely drop the entire last, and probably most important chapter of the book. Between making Asriel too...nice, and not really explaining what anyone's motives are or wtf all these people are doing in the north pole to begin with, and various other changes and omissions, they seemed to sort of write themselves into a corner. And when they got to the end they just couldn't figure out how to square the events of the last chapter with the rest of the movie. So they throw up their hands and say, "Well, if there's a sequel, it's somebody else's problem." I don't know if it's Chris Weisz's fault or the studio's fault, but in the overwrought effort to make the movie familyfundie friendly, somebody f'd up badly.