Kate and I went to see The Golden Compass last night because, dude, armored bears! Also, we both really enjoyed the book, back when it first came out (though I haven't re-read it since The Amber Spyglass, to see if it was retroactively ruined by the third volume).
From the opening titles in the left-over Lord ot ht Rings font, it's clear that this is New Line's bid to reassert their dominance over the "movie adaptations of popular fantasy books" genre, and as a spectacle, it's very good. There's a nifty steampunk aesthetic to Lyra's world and, dude, armored bears!
I didn't walk out of the theater saying "Oh, YES!!" the way I did with The Fellowship of the Ring, though, and I don't expect that we'll be seeing it again in a week, the way we did with that movie.
I remembered essentially nothing about the book other than the very bare outlines of the plot, which was sort of helpful in two respects: one, it makes it easier to guess how the movie would play for someone who hadn't read the books at all, and two, it made it easier to keep track of what the hell was going on. The movie move very fast, and feels sort of compressed. It's the rare example of a movie that would've been better if it were half an hour longer.
Much of the compression was achieved through the use of thuddingly obvious expository dialogue, which is something of a pet peeve. It does make it easier to follow the plot, but it could've been handled a little more smoothly given a bit more running time. It also makes it more difficult to identify with the characters-- we don't spend enough time with John Faa and Ma Kosta for their decisions to have any real emotional resonance. Similarly, Lee Scoresby and Iorek Byrnison don't really get enough screen time to fully develop them-- Scoresby, in particular, doesn't end up as much more than a gun-toting version of Sam Elliott's narrator in The Big Lebowski.
Much has been made of the decision to remove explicit references to religion from the movie-- the church beoming the "Magisterium," and so on. Thanks to the crashingly obvious dialogue, though, this doesn't really obscure the message. Anybody who's too dim to pick up that the Magisterium represents religion probably couldn't figure out how to buy tickets to the movie in the first place.
On the whole, it was a pretty good movie. The CGI and other effects were done well, and the look of the film is terrific. It's a reasonably faithful adaptation of the book, as I remember it, and the acting is generally good (subject to the usual caveats regarding child actors). There are many worse ways to spend a Saturday night.
And, dude, armored bears!
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Comments
# 1 | Ex-drone | December 9, 2007 11:02 AM
Armored polar bears? Oh oh. Do you think they've figured out about global warming?
# 2 | Ross Smith | December 9, 2007 3:41 PM
I haven't seen the movie yet, but I read the trilogy recently, and yes, the effect of global warming on the armoured bears does play a significant part in the plot.
After reading several bloggers' opinions of the movie, my hopes are fading a bit; Chad's is easily the most positive opinion of it I've seen so far.
# 3 | Jonathan Vos Post | December 9, 2007 4:17 PM
Two more positive reviews by reliable Film Critics in major markets, and in major newspapers, who consistently "get it" for Science Fiction and fantasy:
(1) Roger Ebert, on his webpage:
**** The Golden Compass (PG-13)
Saving free will with an armored bear
By Roger Ebert
"The Golden Compass" is a darker, deeper fantasy epic than the "Rings" trilogy, "The Chronicles of Narnia" or the "Potter" films. It springs from the same British world of quasi-philosophical magic, but creates more complex villains and poses more intriguing questions. As a visual experience, it is superb. As an escapist fantasy, it is challenging. Teenagers may be absorbed and younger children may be captivated; some kids in between may be a little conflicted, because its implications are murky.
(2) Special effects and powerhouse acting bring to life a fascinating tale.
By Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 7, 2007
Some novels, even the most potentially cinematic, initially resist being made into films, and so it is with "The Golden Compass."
Watching writer-director Chris Weitz's ultimately satisfying and successful version of the opening volume of the celebrated "His Dark Materials" trilogy, you can feel the strain of fitting Philip Pullman's dazzling feat of sophisticated imagination onto the screen, even with the luxury of a reported $180-million budget.
For Pullman's books, the most literate and intellectually exciting fantasy novels since "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, are works of startling richness. They posit a world parallel to and similar to our own but with key differences, the most noticeable being the existence of daemons, small talking animals of varying sorts who walk next to the humans they are connected to and are the physical manifestation of their souls....
# 4 | E | December 9, 2007 6:00 PM
I dunno. I have read the books - a long time back - but J has not, and even to her it was obvious that a *lot* was being cut out or skimmed over far too rapidly. Given that this is not exactly being aimed at young children anyway, an extra hour or so (yes, a la LotR) would have potentially made a big improvement.
Unlike everyone else, I didn't rate Lyra's actress that highly; my favourite performance was probably that of the head witch, actually.
# 5 | wrpd | December 10, 2007 1:54 AM
Armored bears??? Stephen Colbert's worst nightmare.