The Golden Compass

[Halifirien]

I was underwhelmed by the movie. It's one of those rare cases where I think it  needed to be about 30 minutes longer so you could really establish this world for people and add some real character development. The movie just feels too rushed, and there's no time to take anything in, so it just feels like running from Point A to Point B to Point C as quickly as possible.

I'm intrigued enough to give the books a try, though.

[PlayMSTie]

  In a way, it's a lot like the Star Wars prequels--a lot of famous actors standing around reciting plot summaries to each other in lieu of actual dialog.

Nice summary. That's exactly what it was.

I'm probably in the minority in thinking that there are many things about Pullman's books that render them pretty much unfilmable, even without Weitz's changes. Pullman is a messy plotter, that's all there is to it, and while he's very good at writing children, he's TERRIBLE at writing adults. Having read all three books, I didn't think there was a believable adult in the lot.

[LadyKenobi]

Pullman is a messy plotter,

Plotting becomes extra difficult when the author is pushing a certain agenda, which, no matter one's opinion of the controversy surrounding the movie, Pullman has admitted he was in the books.  It's harder to concentrate on story then. Of course, this tends to apply no matter the agenda. In some of the criticisms I've read of C.S. Lewis, he gets chided for it.   

This is why I write non-fiction.  Plotting requires structure and a often a great deal of planning ahead, at which I hugely suck.  I'm always in awe of authors who can pull it off well while maintaining the other aspects of good writing.

[Variety of Cells]

Yep.  I'm a practicing Christian, but I love the books, for the most part, because it's a fun story.  Also, the God it attacks isn't one that I recognize or worship.  Seriously, this God mutilates children and murders non believers.  I don't see why it should "shake the foundation of my faith" to be told I shouldn't do things like that.  The vast majority of modern Christians don't.

Um, just letting you know, the god that he is attacking is the one you worship.  You may disagree with his claims, but it's still the same one.  You may see the world in a different way, but the way the author sees it, your god is killing non believers.

I'm really interested in these books now.  It's a shame the movie is just so so.  How did it look?  Did they pull off the cgi?

[skenderberg]

Yep.  I'm a practicing Christian, but I love the books, for the most part, because it's a fun story.  Also, the God it attacks isn't one that I recognize or worship.  Seriously, this God mutilates children and murders non believers.  I don't see why it should "shake the foundation of my faith" to be told I shouldn't do things like that.  The vast majority of modern Christians don't.

Um, just letting you know, the god that he is attacking is the one you worship.  You may disagree with his claims, but it's still the same one.  You may see the world in a different way, but the way the author sees it, your god is killing non believers.

I'm really interested in these books now.  It's a shame the movie is just so so.  How did it look?  Did they pull off the cgi?

He's entitled to believe as he wishes.

The movie looks great, actually.  The rocket-powered zepplins, shape-shifting daemons, and armored bears all look very cool. 

[gbeenie]

You know, you still haven't explained your militancy on this point...

[Tripe]

He was molested by two Jets and a Shark.

[Junkyard]

I see him lost in a Bollywood movie studio, on his knees, screaming his confused rage up to the heavens, while Indian people sing and dance around him.

[skenderberg]

See, that makes it sound pretty cool.

As long as you understand that the eye candy isn't supported by anything that remotely approaches an intelligible story or clever dialog.  Kind of like live action anime, except it never approaches that level of over-the-top enthusiasm.

[PlayMSTie]

I see him lost in a Bollywood movie studio, on his knees, screaming his confused rage up to the heavens, while Indian people sing and dance around him.

I'd say that falls safely under the heading of Good Ol' Fashioned Nightmare Fuel.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Could we possibly get back on-topic? Like, for instance, the fact that the movie is bombing not just because a lot of Christians didn't go, but because it stank?

Yep.  I'm a practicing Christian, but I love the books, for the most part, because it's a fun story.  Also, the God it attacks isn't one that I recognize or worship.  Seriously, this God mutilates children and murders non believers.  I don't see why it should "shake the foundation of my faith" to be told I shouldn't do things like that.  The vast majority of modern Christians don't.

The movie, unfortunately, is not a fun story.  In a way, it's a lot like the Star Wars prequels--a lot of famous actors standing around reciting plot summaries to each other in lieu of actual dialog.

Umm, I admit I can't recall any incidents of Jehova/Yaweh/Big G actually >>mutilating<< children, it does seem to have a bit of a thing for nonbeliever-smiting and child-killing. The Tenth Plague nicely combines both aspects: killing the children of non-believers.

Gods on the whole tend to be rather violence-prone people.

[Tripe]

Krishna and Pan don't tend to be

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Zeus, Hera, Athena, Ares, Baal Hammon, Gilgamesh (he's 3/4th's god, that's close enough for some people), El, whoever unleashed the flood in the epic of gilgamesh as a way of smiting all humanity for being too noisy, Odin, Thor, That Celtic God Of Healing Who Killed His Own Relative for Making A Better Magical Prosthetic Hand, Quetzalcoatl, and almost every early mesopotamian diety are violence-prone however.

I'll have to look up Krishna and Pan though.

[Tripe]

Krishna

Pan

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Krishna was a "heroic warrior'. That usually involves some violence, and there's at least two mentions of him personally killing somebody, including one wicked uncle.

Pan seems pretty clear on the track-record, but there is an exception with Echo. He didn't do it personally, but he did command his followers to tear her into raisin-sized peices, which doesn't seem very peace-loving, and all she did was spurn affections. Prudishness and haughtyness hardly seem crimes worthy of messy death-by-total-bodily-dismemberment.