The real Golden Compass vs whatever happened in the theater
Finished His Dark Materials. Without spoilers, let me say that I am pleased. Many, many folks complained about the ending... some saying that they hated the ending - in one case someone told me that the ending ruined the whole series. Honestly, while the ending was difficult, it was satisfying. It wasn't "and they all lived happily ever after and no one ever suffered again." It was a much more realistic ending, so to speak. This wasn't the best book series ever, and in the last book, I felt like I was hearing the author's voice a little too frequently, but over all, I enjoyed it and was glad for the experience.
So I went to see the movie ... I can't even use its proper name ... let's call it "The Girl with the Pet that can turn into anything". No, that's too long. How about "The Cheese Food Product Sandwich". Yesh. Suffice to say, at least with that title, my expectations would have been set appropriately. Anyways, folks who went to see CFPS with me already know my feelings, from the exasperated noises that I made during and especially after this movie. Godz, the wrongness. Even if I had not just finished the story, this movie would have felt horribly rushed and confusing. Visually, it was good. Casting - someone did their job. But, sweet fuck, the screen play and the editing were just godz awful. Plus, it was short. Come on; an extra 30 minutes, and they could have readily resolved some of my anxiety. However, there was also a general dumbing down of the whole story - an unnecessarily large dumbing down. I really feel like audiences could have handled the more complex ideas of the story; further, the concepts that were preserved and presented didn't all have to be thrust repeatedly, on fire, directly into the audience's face. Folks will get it. Maybe I am given audiences too much credit, but seriously, in some way, it felt like this movie was written for eight year olds. Unfortunately, I think that may well be the case. Afterward, in my processing, I got to a point where I said "this was written like a kid's movie" - and that was probably it exactly. I bet some exec somewhere decided to make this a family-friendly holiday movie for the kids. Since most folks think that children need to be treated as infants nowadays, this movie was put together just like that. It was sad to see such a good story treated as such. It should have been treated with more respect and honesty. Just like our kids should be. I weep for the future if this is how we are going to pass on tales to our children.
So I went to see the movie ... I can't even use its proper name ... let's call it "The Girl with the Pet that can turn into anything". No, that's too long. How about "The Cheese Food Product Sandwich". Yesh. Suffice to say, at least with that title, my expectations would have been set appropriately. Anyways, folks who went to see CFPS with me already know my feelings, from the exasperated noises that I made during and especially after this movie. Godz, the wrongness. Even if I had not just finished the story, this movie would have felt horribly rushed and confusing. Visually, it was good. Casting - someone did their job. But, sweet fuck, the screen play and the editing were just godz awful. Plus, it was short. Come on; an extra 30 minutes, and they could have readily resolved some of my anxiety. However, there was also a general dumbing down of the whole story - an unnecessarily large dumbing down. I really feel like audiences could have handled the more complex ideas of the story; further, the concepts that were preserved and presented didn't all have to be thrust repeatedly, on fire, directly into the audience's face. Folks will get it. Maybe I am given audiences too much credit, but seriously, in some way, it felt like this movie was written for eight year olds. Unfortunately, I think that may well be the case. Afterward, in my processing, I got to a point where I said "this was written like a kid's movie" - and that was probably it exactly. I bet some exec somewhere decided to make this a family-friendly holiday movie for the kids. Since most folks think that children need to be treated as infants nowadays, this movie was put together just like that. It was sad to see such a good story treated as such. It should have been treated with more respect and honesty. Just like our kids should be. I weep for the future if this is how we are going to pass on tales to our children.