Golden Compass (or Lord of the Rings pt 4)
Dec. 9th, 2007 11:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fingertroubleI needed some fantasy and escapism on a cold wet Sunday, so went to see a late showing of Golden Compass - place was fairly empty, so got the front of the cinema to myself.
The verdict? Well better than I expected but not as good as I hoped. Worth seeing though. Not surprised at the Kate Bush ending song, she's written so many songs about young girls growing up, religion and so forth. But it was visually amazing if it lost some of the magic and soul of the book.
EDIT: Interesting that one review in IMDB I'm reading now I've written this says it's a rainy afternoon movie - swap afternoon with evening and I'll agree! It's caught between inane kids blockbuster and thoughtful movie of an incredible book, a difficult path that even Harry Potter found hard to tread...I do feel they rushed it and dumbed it down, though.
The verdict? Well better than I expected but not as good as I hoped. Worth seeing though. Not surprised at the Kate Bush ending song, she's written so many songs about young girls growing up, religion and so forth. But it was visually amazing if it lost some of the magic and soul of the book.
EDIT: Interesting that one review in IMDB I'm reading now I've written this says it's a rainy afternoon movie - swap afternoon with evening and I'll agree! It's caught between inane kids blockbuster and thoughtful movie of an incredible book, a difficult path that even Harry Potter found hard to tread...I do feel they rushed it and dumbed it down, though.
Spoilers ahead!
Well as reported they wimped out on the Church business, as mentioned elsewhere it's pretty obvious but it would have been braver to be clearer...had no problem with the ending (makes sense, the original ending would have been too much of a downer, but the 'upbeat' ending is bittersweet when you realise the thing being delivered to Asriel is Roger not the Alethiometer, so interestingly those who've read the book would have a different bittersweet feeling to the rest of the people going 'ahh'.
I think it's a good version, I LOVE the steampunk bits and the zeppellins and shots of London, I love all that victorian stuff - also great to hear Ian McKellen as the voice of Iorek and the fight with the king is breathtaking. Both Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig play it well, Nicole as Ms Coulter played the right sense of hidden evil, yet motherly concern. I thought Daniel played Asriel a bit too goody goody, maybe this'll come out in the next one, but during the first novel you had an interesting feeling as she realised that all adults had their own agenda, including her beloved Asriel, and that Coulter and Asriel were as bad as each other in their ambition and it didn't serve her - a very early teenage realisation, and one of the important themes of the first book.
Sad to see they didn't explain that the children die after intercision - although would that affect their PG rating? which makes the whole Roger thing in film #2 (or 3, cos I don't see how they'll suddenly change focus to an alternate universe without wrapping up #1?) a bit well, less scary.
I think part of the problem is New Line was looking for a new Lord of the Rings rather than giving the original book and plot more space, and maybe more darkness. So it appeals to the kids and the Orcs and Sorcery Forbidden Planet crowd, but means it's rather a lot of CGI and fights and less character development - still by far a lot more than LOTR so as least the good acting cast does breathe some life into this, despite the efforts of the studio - so in a weird way it is a success against the odds, but it's a little 'what it could've been'.
Also the film has the LONGEST TITLES EVER. Which is ironic given the rushed feeling of the rest of the film...I was waiting for an announcement about the next film as mentioned byreslbear - nope, obviously in the UK they don't care if we know or not. Natch.
That said I think this year everyone's going to want an Iorek. Which exactly is the sort of Lucasisation of movies which causes me to worry...
Well as reported they wimped out on the Church business, as mentioned elsewhere it's pretty obvious but it would have been braver to be clearer...had no problem with the ending (makes sense, the original ending would have been too much of a downer, but the 'upbeat' ending is bittersweet when you realise the thing being delivered to Asriel is Roger not the Alethiometer, so interestingly those who've read the book would have a different bittersweet feeling to the rest of the people going 'ahh'.
I think it's a good version, I LOVE the steampunk bits and the zeppellins and shots of London, I love all that victorian stuff - also great to hear Ian McKellen as the voice of Iorek and the fight with the king is breathtaking. Both Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig play it well, Nicole as Ms Coulter played the right sense of hidden evil, yet motherly concern. I thought Daniel played Asriel a bit too goody goody, maybe this'll come out in the next one, but during the first novel you had an interesting feeling as she realised that all adults had their own agenda, including her beloved Asriel, and that Coulter and Asriel were as bad as each other in their ambition and it didn't serve her - a very early teenage realisation, and one of the important themes of the first book.
Sad to see they didn't explain that the children die after intercision - although would that affect their PG rating? which makes the whole Roger thing in film #2 (or 3, cos I don't see how they'll suddenly change focus to an alternate universe without wrapping up #1?) a bit well, less scary.
I think part of the problem is New Line was looking for a new Lord of the Rings rather than giving the original book and plot more space, and maybe more darkness. So it appeals to the kids and the Orcs and Sorcery Forbidden Planet crowd, but means it's rather a lot of CGI and fights and less character development - still by far a lot more than LOTR so as least the good acting cast does breathe some life into this, despite the efforts of the studio - so in a weird way it is a success against the odds, but it's a little 'what it could've been'.
Also the film has the LONGEST TITLES EVER. Which is ironic given the rushed feeling of the rest of the film...I was waiting for an announcement about the next film as mentioned by
reslbear - nope, obviously in the UK they don't care if we know or not. Natch.That said I think this year everyone's going to want an Iorek. Which exactly is the sort of Lucasisation of movies which causes me to worry...