all of their names are so fun to say
Dec. 7th, 2007 06:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orangerfulOMG YAY, the 'Golden Compass' movie did not totally suck!
The short version: Of course they had to change stuff, and most of what they changed made sense to help the movie move along faster. There were only a couple complaints I had about things they altered that I thought should have been left the way they were, and a few things that went unmentioned that I would to have liked to have seen on film, but all in all, I am quite pleased.
The longer version:
-- first, the biggest jaw droping WTF HOW DARE YOU moment for everyone that saw it with me was the end. It ends early and does not take you to the end of the book! They even set up to smash Lyra's heart and your heart with Roger's murder by her own father, but instead they end as the two are heading towards Asriel. I am very upset about this, especially since you actually SAW the finals moments in the original trailer for the movie so we know they filmed it. I felt it took a bit of the punch out of the movie. The ending of the book is so emotional, so action packed that you can't help but run and find a copy of 'Subtle Knife' to figure out where it is all going. To stop with an "upbeat" ending is just so Hollywood. BLAH!
-- The animation on Iorek and all the Daemons was fantastic. I was leary of the "celebrity" voice casting but it didn't matter. I'm pretty sure they added a bit of something to Ian McKellan's voice, a growl in the background to make it even more bear-like. And I swear Freddie Highmore sounded exactly like the Pan in the audiobook version.
-- The casting was spot on. The little girl that played Lyra was perfect. She was great at giving the "looks" that Lyra constantly does. Nicole Kidman as Mrs Coulter was exactly right, even with her blonde hair. Her features were so controlled, her every move calculated. Yes, she did a great job of being the heartless bitch and caring mother that Coulter bounces between.
-- I was upset that they changed the "reveal" of the Coulter/Asriel relationship and that Lyra is their daughter. In the books, if I remember correctly, Ma Costa is the one that tells Lyra the truth about her heritage, rather early on actually. Then Lyra gets to think it over for most of the book, decide that she hates Mrs Coulter and loves Lord Asriel. That way when Mrs Coulter saves her from the intercision, it causes a bit of confusion for Lyra. And even more so when her dad kills Roger (but, again we didn't SEE that in the movie!) In the movie, they have Mrs Coulter tell her after the intercision sequence, which makes sense sort of, but it turns into a whole "Luke I am your father" moment. Also, the movie infers that Mrs Coulter gave up Lyra because she wasn't allowed to keep her. In the book, she gives her up because she just doesn't have time for a kid and she pretty much hates Asriel.
-- Mrs Coulter's relationship with her daemon was really creepy. But it worked! When she slaps her monkey (um...that sounds wrong) and then apologizes and cuddles him, you can see how confused she really is. Her daemon never talked in the books (at least, out loud) and he does not speak in the film.
-- Now, I know everyone was worried about the removal of the anti-church parts of the story, and, as I said before, there isn't a whole lot of that in the first book anyway! I didn't feel as though anything was missing from this one. Heck, when Mrs Coulter describes Dust to Lyra, she is describing Adam and Eve. She says something along the lines of "our anscetors made a big mistake in the past and now we have dust and it makes you a bad person for having it even though you have no control over it". The next book is where the trouble would start because Lyra will come into our world. THAT is when the lines between the church and magistirium begin to run together. But this movie, they just said "Magisterium" and "Authority" a lot.
-- Oh, and it wasn't very long! I was surprised! It's actually less than 2 hours! 113 minutes! Which makes the ending a bit more aggravating. But also makes you wonder why they didn't go back and shove in a few more scenes. Like more about the Ice Bears. In the book, we see that the king of the Ice Bears is trying to make them act like humans and they don't like it but have to follow. I wish they could have done a bit more with that. It helps separate them from the human characters. They are alive, they have their own culture and civilization that is different from the humans but they are still to be respected. Or a bit more about what having your daemon separated from you really does to you as a person.
All in all, I think the movie was great. We didn't have a "control group" to tell us if someone who had not read the books would have questions about what they were seeing. But the 4 of us really enjoyed it. I feel like I need to read the books again (come on Santa Yoda!) and refresh my mind and watch it again. And I really hope they make enough at the box office to want to film the rest of the series.
EDIT: Rotten Tomatoes has a 43% for the movie. That seems about right for films I enjoy. Reading the reviewer blurbs is interesting, they talk about lack of "warmth" in the film, but the characters are not especially warm yet in the first book...hm...again, I stress the need for my control group!
The short version: Of course they had to change stuff, and most of what they changed made sense to help the movie move along faster. There were only a couple complaints I had about things they altered that I thought should have been left the way they were, and a few things that went unmentioned that I would to have liked to have seen on film, but all in all, I am quite pleased.
The longer version:
-- first, the biggest jaw droping WTF HOW DARE YOU moment for everyone that saw it with me was the end. It ends early and does not take you to the end of the book! They even set up to smash Lyra's heart and your heart with Roger's murder by her own father, but instead they end as the two are heading towards Asriel. I am very upset about this, especially since you actually SAW the finals moments in the original trailer for the movie so we know they filmed it. I felt it took a bit of the punch out of the movie. The ending of the book is so emotional, so action packed that you can't help but run and find a copy of 'Subtle Knife' to figure out where it is all going. To stop with an "upbeat" ending is just so Hollywood. BLAH!
-- The animation on Iorek and all the Daemons was fantastic. I was leary of the "celebrity" voice casting but it didn't matter. I'm pretty sure they added a bit of something to Ian McKellan's voice, a growl in the background to make it even more bear-like. And I swear Freddie Highmore sounded exactly like the Pan in the audiobook version.
-- The casting was spot on. The little girl that played Lyra was perfect. She was great at giving the "looks" that Lyra constantly does. Nicole Kidman as Mrs Coulter was exactly right, even with her blonde hair. Her features were so controlled, her every move calculated. Yes, she did a great job of being the heartless bitch and caring mother that Coulter bounces between.
-- I was upset that they changed the "reveal" of the Coulter/Asriel relationship and that Lyra is their daughter. In the books, if I remember correctly, Ma Costa is the one that tells Lyra the truth about her heritage, rather early on actually. Then Lyra gets to think it over for most of the book, decide that she hates Mrs Coulter and loves Lord Asriel. That way when Mrs Coulter saves her from the intercision, it causes a bit of confusion for Lyra. And even more so when her dad kills Roger (but, again we didn't SEE that in the movie!) In the movie, they have Mrs Coulter tell her after the intercision sequence, which makes sense sort of, but it turns into a whole "Luke I am your father" moment. Also, the movie infers that Mrs Coulter gave up Lyra because she wasn't allowed to keep her. In the book, she gives her up because she just doesn't have time for a kid and she pretty much hates Asriel.
-- Mrs Coulter's relationship with her daemon was really creepy. But it worked! When she slaps her monkey (um...that sounds wrong) and then apologizes and cuddles him, you can see how confused she really is. Her daemon never talked in the books (at least, out loud) and he does not speak in the film.
-- Now, I know everyone was worried about the removal of the anti-church parts of the story, and, as I said before, there isn't a whole lot of that in the first book anyway! I didn't feel as though anything was missing from this one. Heck, when Mrs Coulter describes Dust to Lyra, she is describing Adam and Eve. She says something along the lines of "our anscetors made a big mistake in the past and now we have dust and it makes you a bad person for having it even though you have no control over it". The next book is where the trouble would start because Lyra will come into our world. THAT is when the lines between the church and magistirium begin to run together. But this movie, they just said "Magisterium" and "Authority" a lot.
-- Oh, and it wasn't very long! I was surprised! It's actually less than 2 hours! 113 minutes! Which makes the ending a bit more aggravating. But also makes you wonder why they didn't go back and shove in a few more scenes. Like more about the Ice Bears. In the book, we see that the king of the Ice Bears is trying to make them act like humans and they don't like it but have to follow. I wish they could have done a bit more with that. It helps separate them from the human characters. They are alive, they have their own culture and civilization that is different from the humans but they are still to be respected. Or a bit more about what having your daemon separated from you really does to you as a person.
All in all, I think the movie was great. We didn't have a "control group" to tell us if someone who had not read the books would have questions about what they were seeing. But the 4 of us really enjoyed it. I feel like I need to read the books again (come on Santa Yoda!) and refresh my mind and watch it again. And I really hope they make enough at the box office to want to film the rest of the series.
EDIT: Rotten Tomatoes has a 43% for the movie. That seems about right for films I enjoy. Reading the reviewer blurbs is interesting, they talk about lack of "warmth" in the film, but the characters are not especially warm yet in the first book...hm...again, I stress the need for my control group!
