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Topic:
The Golden Compass... An Exciting Adventure? (Spoilers Allowed)
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raisedbywolves
Registered:
Jul '05
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Date Posted:
1/4 3:02pm
Subject:
RE: The Golden Compass... An Exciting Adventure? (Spoilers Allowed)
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ThrawnRocks: I just wanted to underline that you're right in your observations about the movie. Also I must have missed the bit about how the Magesterium was supposedly trying to conquer the other worlds in the film. That's absolutely ridiculous, you'd think that they'd have been first in line to fund Asriel's research if that were the case. Grr.
Vortigern (is that name from an episode of Long Ago and Far Away which I remember oh so vaguely?):
I'm not sure what Edward meant by the significance of the ice bears, but they seemed to serve the narrative purpose of introducing readers to different kinds of sentience and relationships to the soul, i.e. they are attached to their armor, have a bizarre code of honor, cannot be tricked, etcetera. Diverse kinds of sentient beings show up throughout the series, so the ice bears give us a taste of that. Also, as part of the Magesterium's political machinations in the book, it is planning to enslave the ice bears to its cause and beliefs by promising them they can become more like humans and have daemons too. King Ragnar is in the process of making the ice bears want to be human when Iorek arrives.
So yes, read the book. At the very least sit down in Barnes & Noble and read the last few chapters, so you can find out what important item Lyra is bringing to Asriel... 
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What She Saw: http://boards.theforce.net/Before_the_Saga/b10475/21886008/?0 Proud (if erstwhile) padawan to Master Darth Pixel. It's not Darth Real Life, actually - I prefer to think of it as my very demanding Jedi Master.
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Sniper_Wolf
Registered:
Nov '02
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Date Posted:
1/9 10:47pm
Subject:
RE: The Golden Compass... An Exciting Adventure? (Spoilers Allowed)
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When I saw the movie (without reading the book) I thought it was alright. The biggest weakness is the ending since lacked any resolution at all. The movie basically stops. Now after just finishing the book the movie's ending is flat out criminal. Golden Compass has the type of ending that completely rewrites the reader's perceptions on everything that happened to that point besides being quite downbeat for a young adult novel. I don't mind changes from novel to screenplay as long as the essence of the novel is preserved. The lack of the ending fails to transplant what Pullman is trying to say in the original novel. That's the main failing of the film.
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DorkmanScott
Title: Manager Emeritus
Registered:
Mar '01
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Date Posted:
1/13 9:48pm
Subject:
RE: The Golden Compass... An Exciting Adventure? (Spoilers Allowed)
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I'm going to chime in as well. I saw the movie not having read the book, and even based on that I thought it was pretty lame. There wasn't much of an ending and it didn't really bother to develop or follow-through on any of the few themes established. I'm glad I saw the film first for a couple of reasons.
For one thing, it was difficult for me to envision exactly the world we were dealing with (I only got to "John Faa" on my previous attempts to read the books and I had no real understanding of what was happening). Having the understanding of what was going on with the daemons helped immensely.
The second reason I'm glad I hadn't read the book first is because I would have been furious at the film's mistreatment of the story in removing the ending. As it is I read the book two weeks later and I'm STILL furious about it now. How dare they even MAKE the film if they're not going to tell the story? It's not even that they didn't tell it "properly", they didn't tell it AT ALL. And now that I'm a third of the way through Subtle Knife, they haven't set it up properly either. They basically destroyed the possibility of actually telling the story properly.
*sigh*
I guess we'll have to wait 20 years for someone with some clout (and talent) to come along and "remake" them. Which is a pity, since, as others said, the things they got right (like Lyra's performance), they really got right.
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 Obama/Biden 2008 Let's bring back America. http://www.ryanvsdorkman.com Check out my blog: http://dorkmanscott.blogspot.com
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Sauntaero
Registered:
Jul '03
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Date Posted:
1/16 5:19am
Subject:
RE: The Golden Compass... An Exciting Adventure? (Spoilers Allowed)
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I don't know if this is a dead topi by now, but I just saw the film a few days ago.
Hmmm.
I'd defintely give it props for staying relatively faithful to the book, but I'd add that that might be what made it so...boring? Mediocre movie. Not gripping or engaging, unfortunately, since the book was both (but I was fidgiting all thru the movie!) I guess things got lost in translation--I'm not a fan of books-to-movies at all.
However, there were some good parts. It's a little like a Disney-version of the book, simplified for prettiness and skewed a bit to have a happy ending. I think the acting was the only thing that was holding it together, really. I won't say the performances were perfect, but they pulled off some difficult lines and imaginary feats. Lyra I was impressed with, and Billy Costa was great! Mrs. Coulter could've been a bit more creepy, the bears could've been a bit more magical, and everything more relaxed. I wouldn't say the pacing was too fast, but it was difficult to get a feel for anything in such a brief amount of time. No emotion, on the whole.
Final Judgement: lost in translation.
.02
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