The Golden Compass

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Now that I've seen the movie, I hate the Catholic Church. Thank God, for Phillip Pullman.

Not Really. It was big fantasy movie with most of it's religious overtones removed to avoid the thought police. Sure there was the Magisterium and it's secret police who want to control all thought but that's just good old Authoritarian rule. We can all get behind hating that.

It's amazing what $200 million can buy you these days. I'm sure somebody said oh fuck this is going to be expensive when they learned that every person in the movie has a constant animal companion following them around. And they change depending on the person's mood. Plus, they talk. Here the cash register ring. It all looked great. The London scenes looked like London scenes from the League of Extraordinary Gentleman, but maybe they used the same effects house.

It all comes down to a big chase movie with everyone heading North to the Arctic. Come North, the rush is on. Lyra, the only one who can read the golden compass and we don't know why. It's Prophecy. Is off to find her Uncle who's on the search for dust. Lyra meets witches and Gyptians and talking warrior Polar Bears(cha-ching). I kept waiting for the Warrior Polar Bears to stumble across the Coca Cola Polar Bears. That would have been a fun battle. The Golden Compass Polar Bears would have kicked ass!

All in all, I was entertained. Do you remember Inigo Montoya from the Princess Bride? He kept saying "Let me Explain. No that will take too long. Let me sum up" That's what this film felt like, bits and pieces of the book to give you a general feel for the story. And who doesn't want Ian McKellan as a grumpy Polar Bear?

Trivia addendum that makes you shake your head: Chris Weitz also directed American Pie. One cost millions and made hundreds of millions. The other cost hundreds of millions and is only going to make millions.

[The Queen]

Can only think of two things to add to that review:

1 - Nicole Kidman is really superb at playing creepy villainess. The rest of the cast was just average -- she really takes it to the next level.

2 - I've had it with movies with snow and ice. Between Beowulf and Golden Compass, I'm freezing to death. Do you think maybe the theatres turn up the air conditioning (or turn off the heat this time of year) just to make it more miserable? Am I allowed to bring a blanket with me into the theatre? For the price we pay for films, shouldn't there be individual seat heaters???

[Drunk Monk]

More of that Bond guy too.

Clearly, they were shooting for the next great book-to-film franchise, and they had it all lined up - big budget, big stars, big effects. Unfortunately, Compass didn't have the following of LotR or Harry Potter, or even Narnia, which is struggling. Plus it spent too much effort trying to get the story rolling, to get all the elements in place for the sequel, and it doesn't really do that until the very end of the film. Harry Potter might have suffered from the same problem had the directors not chosen to focus on particular character interactions and not get lost in the immensity of the project. Although I've never read Compass, I can see where it's translation to film glossed over way too much. It's too bad really. It had great potential. We really wanted to see more of Nicole as the evil mom with the creepy monkey daemon.