more than we'd expected, less than we'd hoped

[ravenclaw42]

Spoilers.

I have mixed feelings about the Golden Compass movie. It was good. Solid. I hope it does make kids want to read the books.

Comments

[ravenclaw42]

Oh, read the books. They're so good. And the books are very much against organized religion, but they're utterly, utterly for personal spirituality. The Archbishop of Canterbury is actually a big advocate of Christians reading these books to reaffirm their personal relationships with the divine -- the books make you question the benefit of taking orders, of believing what people tell you to believe, but they also make you understand what is really valuable. The obvious things that people somehow miss -- love, hope, perseverance, growing into yourself.

Plus, it's just a good story and it's a shame, as you say, that people can't just sit down and appreciate a good story without twisting and overblowing them.

Not that much of this applies to the movie, since it doesn't have very much of that anti-organized religion thing going on. It's anti-establishment, so the message is still there, but the religion angle is mostly gone. Churchgoers have nothing to "worry" about. (Although they ought not be worried in the first place; they ought to have enough faith not to feel threatened by people who don't share their faith. But isn't that just true of the whole world?)

Getting off my soapbox now. Heh. ^_^