As a lowly blogger, I don't get to attend press screenings of the week's cinema releases, so I only watch what I'm inclined to. This means everything I go and see at the cinema, or buy on DVD, is as a result of marketing, word-of-mouth and personal preferences.
I was very inclined to see The Golden Compass as my "big Christmas film" this year, ever since it went into production. Starting with The Lord Of The Rings in 2001, I've enjoyed going to see a big blockbuster around Christmas time: something epic, ideally wintry, visually impressive, and easy to watch...
The Golden Compass seemed to fit the bill perfectly, being a fantasy film with polar bears and lots of special-effects. It seemed a dead cert. But now, I'm not so sure. The reviews have been very mixed, but the ones I tend to value have been quite scathing. Well, actually, they seem mostly disappointment -- particularly from critics who have read the books...
And I read His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman about 2 years ago, which are comprised of Northern Lights (Golden Compass is the US title), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. I really enjoyed them all, although credibility does begin to stretch in Spyglass...
I was therefore excited by the film's looming release (and I may still enjoy it, of course), but I'm very worried by these reviews. I always suspected the religious overtones would be watered-down by Hollywood, but apparently they've been pretty much castrated and have thus ripped the heart out of the story. The religious aspect was what initially drew me to the books!
It hasn't happened in the films yet, but the second book basically finds our heroes on a mission to kill God (well, "The Authority", but it's clearly the big guy upstairs.) How are they going to make deicide palatable for a kid's movie, if Golden Compass lacked the balls to make the Magistereum an obvious attack on organized religion?
It's also clear, from interviews with the cast, that some questions posed in His Dark Materials have been explained very early in the film. I remember it taking ages before I realized the animal familiars were visualizations of each person's "soul" -- but that's a given in the Compass film from the very beginning!
I also remember it being a surprise when the second book took us to our world, as I just thought the book's story just took place in this crazy universe where people had shape-shifting animal friends. It helped expand the whole story into interesting areas when Lyra arrives in our dimension. The film makes it abundantly clear we're in Parallel Universe Land straight away, apparently.
Remember, my opinions here are based purely on reviews and cast interviews... so maybe Daniel Craig is just giving away future plot-points, without realizing it. Can anyone confirm? He definitely mentioned that the animal "daemons" only take one shape after puberty which... if I remember correctly... was only revealed in the last book of the trilogy, and helped the whole theme of the trilogy make sense. So that's a big pay-off that film audiences have been handed immediately!
So basically, The Golden Compass is no longer must-see for me. It sounds like it's going to be an annoying interpretation if you've read the books. Pullman's trilogy was much darker, with a more intelligent atmosphere than any of the trailers and clips have demonstrated. The sequence in the book when kidnapped children have their daemons forcibly removed is absolutely chilling, but apparently it's botched in the film...
What really depresses me is that most people aren't big readers – so they'll watch Golden Compass and think Pullman's books themselves are overrated. But, you should read the books, guys – I found them fascinating and dense. I'm told the stage version of His Dark Materials was enchanting and kept the integrity and intelligence of the novels – so why couldn't they just directly translate the stage-play into a screenplay?
I still hope Compass does well at the box-office, so I might go along to support it -- if only so it's successful enough to warrant a sequel they can make amends with! The books really do take some amazing twists and turns, and the studio can't sidestep the weightier issues introduced in Spyglass just by distracting you with CGI... can they?
I was very inclined to see The Golden Compass as my "big Christmas film" this year, ever since it went into production. Starting with The Lord Of The Rings in 2001, I've enjoyed going to see a big blockbuster around Christmas time: something epic, ideally wintry, visually impressive, and easy to watch...
The Golden Compass seemed to fit the bill perfectly, being a fantasy film with polar bears and lots of special-effects. It seemed a dead cert. But now, I'm not so sure. The reviews have been very mixed, but the ones I tend to value have been quite scathing. Well, actually, they seem mostly disappointment -- particularly from critics who have read the books...
And I read His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman about 2 years ago, which are comprised of Northern Lights (Golden Compass is the US title), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. I really enjoyed them all, although credibility does begin to stretch in Spyglass...
I was therefore excited by the film's looming release (and I may still enjoy it, of course), but I'm very worried by these reviews. I always suspected the religious overtones would be watered-down by Hollywood, but apparently they've been pretty much castrated and have thus ripped the heart out of the story. The religious aspect was what initially drew me to the books!
It hasn't happened in the films yet, but the second book basically finds our heroes on a mission to kill God (well, "The Authority", but it's clearly the big guy upstairs.) How are they going to make deicide palatable for a kid's movie, if Golden Compass lacked the balls to make the Magistereum an obvious attack on organized religion?
It's also clear, from interviews with the cast, that some questions posed in His Dark Materials have been explained very early in the film. I remember it taking ages before I realized the animal familiars were visualizations of each person's "soul" -- but that's a given in the Compass film from the very beginning!
I also remember it being a surprise when the second book took us to our world, as I just thought the book's story just took place in this crazy universe where people had shape-shifting animal friends. It helped expand the whole story into interesting areas when Lyra arrives in our dimension. The film makes it abundantly clear we're in Parallel Universe Land straight away, apparently.
Remember, my opinions here are based purely on reviews and cast interviews... so maybe Daniel Craig is just giving away future plot-points, without realizing it. Can anyone confirm? He definitely mentioned that the animal "daemons" only take one shape after puberty which... if I remember correctly... was only revealed in the last book of the trilogy, and helped the whole theme of the trilogy make sense. So that's a big pay-off that film audiences have been handed immediately!
So basically, The Golden Compass is no longer must-see for me. It sounds like it's going to be an annoying interpretation if you've read the books. Pullman's trilogy was much darker, with a more intelligent atmosphere than any of the trailers and clips have demonstrated. The sequence in the book when kidnapped children have their daemons forcibly removed is absolutely chilling, but apparently it's botched in the film...
What really depresses me is that most people aren't big readers – so they'll watch Golden Compass and think Pullman's books themselves are overrated. But, you should read the books, guys – I found them fascinating and dense. I'm told the stage version of His Dark Materials was enchanting and kept the integrity and intelligence of the novels – so why couldn't they just directly translate the stage-play into a screenplay?
I still hope Compass does well at the box-office, so I might go along to support it -- if only so it's successful enough to warrant a sequel they can make amends with! The books really do take some amazing twists and turns, and the studio can't sidestep the weightier issues introduced in Spyglass just by distracting you with CGI... can they?
