The Golden Compass (2007)

By Andrew Lyle
in Movie Ratings

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Grand Master

azcodemonkey

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Danger: Here be spoilers.

I debated reviewing this one myself after I saw it but couldn't really put my feelings into words.

I had made sure to read the entire His Dark Materials trilogy prior to seeing TGC when it came out so I had a good idea of the world Pullman was trying to create.

The movie did not successfully duplicate it. It produced a very artificial version of Pullman's vision and, while performances were good all around (Richards is pretty much exactly how I pictured Lyra when reading the books, and has her mannerisms down to a science), failed to evoke the same strange wonder that the books did so beautifully.

To create atmosphere in a story requires setup and the movie, either for lack of time or talent (I had never heard of the director, Weitz, before this), didn't provide adequate setup to establish the feel of Lyra's world. Little things, terms like "anbaric" and "naphtha," the detail that the Master of Jordan College had beaten Lyra as punishment for antics, the bit with Lyra and Roger getting p*ssed drunk in the crypt, the part where Mrs. Coulter made Pantalaimon look away while she was bathing Lyra, all these tiny details lend so much to the kind of people the characters are or the kind of world they live in and so very many of them were stripped out.

The intercision machine was, I thought, ill-portrayed. In fact, the entire Bolvangar sequence was given the shaft - I'm talking Death Star reactor shaft, complete with emperor falling to his death - in the movie. The book had Lyra spending weeks at the facility, whereas the film showed her there for...hours? Minutes?

And dammit, when children (people in general) are intercised, they die. They don't get real sad and have to go find their daemon, no, they live for a few days as zombies and then drop dead. That was the whole point of Lyra's discovery of Tony Makarios (Billy Costa in the movie) in the shed with his dead fish (piece of fur in the movie). It was to demonstrate the horror of what the Magisterium was doing to children. These kids weren't having their friends taken away, they were having their souls cut out. Weitz aimed for a PG-13 rating for TGC, but maybe they should have just made it an R. At least then the major ideas Pullman put forth would have been preserved.

I can only wonder what they're going to do with Will's hand when he comes into possession of the Subtle Knife, assuming TSK is actually made into a movie.

I completely agree. I just finished The Amber Spyglass last night, and just watched the movie. I'm thoroughly disappointed. The movie was poorly written, directed, and edited. Chris Weitz ruined this story on film.

Grand Master

azcodemonkey

Posted
Posted
I've been planning for a long time to read the books after hearing great things about His Dark Materials, but now after watching the movie I'm not sure if I'll just be wasting my time again... :(

The books are good. The characters are well drawn, and the plot is addicting. I ripped through Amber Spyglass in 2 evenings, and it's almost 500 pages. I'll probably re-read them soon. For "children's" books, there are some very adult themes to them that are probably lost on the younger readers. The series really bridges the generation gap.

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