The Golden Compass
Beautiful. A much better film than the critics seem to think IMHO. Visually interesting and beautiful to watch, it moved with enough pace to keep your interest and didn’t botch the book. Yes, it’s not as good as the book (and I would highly recommend the three novels, they are excellent) but I think that was to be expected with a book that is inherently about ideas rather than plot. The armoured bears were spectacular and worth the price of admission on their own.
Current temperature: here 9C/48F, there 14F/-10C
December 28th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
A great one to see in the cinema, with things like the armoured bears, and the airship and ‘Oxford’, and the scope of the daemons - how you could see so many at once in the crowd scenes. I liked how they did the daemons, and the Gyptians, and the witch queen and Lee Scoresby, and LYRA. I emphasise the latter since I spent the first two books wanting to wring her irritating little neck, and I only warmed to her in the third book when she became more mature. So the film was possibly more successful for me than the book.
December 28th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
I have a sneaking suspicion that Sam Elliot was who Philip Pullman had in mind when writing Lee Scoresby. I certainly thought of him immediately when reading the books.
The visuals were wonderful. I’d love to try the three wheeled carriage for myself. That was so cool. Seeing the daemons turn to golden dust when people died was a great effect and a way to keep the movie accessible for a younger audience.
January 10th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
how can you go wrong with armored polar bears?