The Golden Compass

[Elzaim]

Well, I really loved it!

I have to agree that there were a few parts missing that I kind-of wish they'd put in, but I was fine with the pacing and everything (then again, I HAD just spent 2 whole days listening to the audiobook before I went to the movie). I loved Dakota as Lyra - she really was made for the role, and she shone. The other characters were pretty much as I had invisioned them, except for Farder Coram - I had always imagined him as an 80-something wrinkly man, but I thought he looked a bit too young in the movie.

I also have to agree with whoever said that they didn't quite get the relationships between daemon and human across as well as it could have been, but it didn't bother me so much. The bear fight was AMAZING, and I had no idea they were actually going to keep the 'jaw-hurling' in it. It was great. I also really enjoyed how they demonstrated the daemons dying when their human died. That was a nice touch. And the fluid-ness of how they had the daemons changing shapes was beautiful. Really, really well done.

I liked it so much I'm probably going to go see it again with my little brother over Christmas. I was so incredibly excited to see this movie, and for me - a die-hard fan of the series - it delivered. 4/5 stars!

[Sayle]

What are peoples' opinions of the girl who plays Lyra? She strikes me as too girly and a little too old, but I haven't seen the movie yet. I'm nervous that she might not be able to act, and if this is the case then I won't waste my money.

I wasn't convinced by the snippets I'd seen in the previews, but I really thought she did a good job. I thought the part where she and Pan nearly got cut from each other was especially heart-wrenching.

It was fucking awesome. People in my theater actually gasped!

Yeah, there were a bunch of gasps in the theatre, and then some whooping, cheering, and clapping.

I think I'll go to see it one or two more times.

[Seerow]

I tried to read the books once long ago for some school project or something but never got into it. Not sure why, because from what I've read, it sounds like my type of book. I think I'll see if my local library has a copy in stock that I can borrow and I'll read it sometime next week after finals are over.

I am however really excited for to see the movie as it looks amazing. I'll probably try and see it sometime next weekend before I pick up the book so I won't have any huge expectations going into it.

[Silverevilchao]

[SPOILERS]

I really loved the movie. The fast pacing was perfect for me, because, frankly, I hate slow movies (the slow pacing was what totally killed Spider-man 3 for me: do we REALLY need to spend a good 3/4s of the movie revolving around Peter's romance issues?). I found myself squeeing over the scenes I recognized from the book, and going "ah, I see why he changed that" anytime I saw a change (Pullman wrote the movie's screenplay, so I really don't care about the changes) in the movie.

Dakota Richards is EASILY the best pick for Lyra. She isn't acting as Lyra, she IS Lyra. What's freaky is that they cast Ms. Coulter and Daniel Craig PERFECTLY: Dakota looks like both of them, with the exception of the eyes (oops! Two blue-eyed people can't have a child with brown eyes, sorry.); she really looks like their child. Pan's voice suited him perfectly, the CGI was fantastic, and I totally squeed over Serafina and Scoresby (though my mom was miffed over the fact that they left out that he came from the kingdom of Texas). The spy-bugs...wow. Loved those.

I was kinda miffed over the voice change for Iorek, though. Everytime he said something, I was picturing Gandalf the Grey in my head. Or Magneto. That said, though, Iorek WAS portrayed very faithfully, and I, too, was surprised that they kept the jaw-flying portion, though he didn't eat the bear's heart.

What also surprised me was how much they changed the movie between the final product and the trailer. First off, the trailer had the ending scene from the book where Asriel opens the portal to the other universe (which means they're probably already making footage for the second movie. I hope.). Second, the bear-battle was in an ENTIRELY different setting, with an ENTIRELY different camera angle, and with no jaw-breakage. Third, the scene where the monkey grabs Roger and whats-his-name was entirely different in the trailer: Roger was by himself, and his daemon changed into a butterfly, which was then snatched by the monkey, much like what happened to Tony in the book.

The ending...I was fine with it, and I can see why they ended there. Why make the audience remember the last thing they saw of the movie so damn depressing, when you can leave it at a hopeful (well, for those who haven't read the books) one instead? And I felt satisfaction over the fact that I REALLY knew what Lyra meant when she said that the alethiometer told her that she was "bringing exactly what Lord Asriel wanted". I rubbed my hands in glee knowing that the unsuspecting people who HAVEN'T read the book are going to be very, very shocked when the second movie comes. Muahaha.

[Cranberry]

(Pullman wrote the movie's screenplay, so I really don't care about the changes)

No, they initially asked him to, but he said that films should be left to filmmakers. Chris Weitz wrote and directed. He consulted with Pullman often, including about the ending. They actually filmed the whole thing with Asriel, and it may open The Subtle Knife, if it gets made. Unfortunately, GC only made around 26 mil in its opening weekend, which is below the 30 mil (minimum) New Line was hoping for. The movie cost upwards of 180 mil to make (some reports say 250 mil, which I think includes the massive advertising budget). There are several movies coming out in the rest of December that are going to stomp all over it. New Line was counting on GC to be its big holiday earner, and it's not going to be. No one's sure now if there will be a sequel. I'm just hoping they find out before the DVD release, because if they aren't making Subtle Knife, I'd like to see GC's real ending put on the DVD (it's rumored that they want to release a director's cut anyway, with more backstory on Serafina and Farder Coram and more on the gyptians).

[Wingsrising]

I got to see it last night (finally). The theatre was not packed, but was reasonably full given that this isn't the nicest theatre in the area and that it was chilly and raining. We'll just have to see how it does in the next few weeks, internationally, and how much it makes in DVD sales, I guess. It didn't make as much as New Line was hoping for but it was still the #1 movie last weekend -- no one was really seeing ANYTHING, perhaps because the weather sucked everywhere but here.

I liked it. It was pretty. It was pretty enough that I'll be sad if the sequel doesn't get made. Unfortunately I don't think it was really anything but pretty -- there was no real substance to it. Everything was cut down for time and watered down to satisfy the religious right to the point where it felt (to me) that the movie really had no point to it except to be pretty. In that sense it reminded me a lot of the first two Harry Potter movies -- like they pretty much just slapped as much of the book as possible onto the screen without any real concern about whether the result was actually going to work well as a film... which it generally doesn't. Books are books and films are films. While I like it when films try to stay faithful to the book, when they try TOO hard IMHO the film usually suffers as a result.

The film also needed to be a half-hour longer at the minimum. And to have a lot more of Lee and Hester in it.

However, the girl who played Lyra was fantastic. I especially liked the scene with her and what's-his-name the bear king, and the scene where she gave the tin to Mrs. Coulter. Butter wouldn't melt in that girl's mouth. (And it was fun hearing people in the theatre -- who presumably hadn't read the book -- react when they saw what Lyra had taken out of her bag.)

I was a little surprised to see that NONE of the trailer were for family-oriented films, though.

[Cranberry]

They played the Prince Caspian trailer before GC when I saw it, which amused me.

[danceu4ia]

They played the Prince Caspian trailer before GC when I saw it, which amused me.

PRINCE CASPIAN WHAT?!?! *frantically googles for new Narnia adventures*

[Cranberry]

The previous No. 1 movie, New Line Cinema's fantasy "The Golden Compass," nose-dived in its second weekend, coming in third with $9 million, down a dismal 65 percent from its less-than-expected $25.8 million debut a week earlier.

Ouch. I Am Legend opened with $76.5 million, and Alvin and the freakin' Chipmunks came second with $45 million. I'd say that unless foreign box office and DVD sales are really great, we won't see Subtle Knife on screen.

[EofS]

I'd say that unless foreign box office and DVD sales are really great, we won't see Subtle Knife on screen.

Well the international box office for opening weekend was $55m - the UK alone managed more than 50% of the US opening weekend box office, for a country a tiny fraction of the size. Despite them marketing it under a title which means nothing to most people! The books have always been far more popular over here.

I'm hoping that the upcoming school holidays will help it out - it seemed to have such a ridiculous release timing. People have a lot of other things to do in the weeks approaching Christmas, and I'm sure parents would rather wait until the break to take children.

Here we go: International has so far made $90m which is pretty respectable. I'm interested to see how well it's done in Spain, considering how Very Catholic it is over there.

So... fingers crossed. I saw it on Saturday and I can't understand why it's been so roundly slammed by the critics. I mean, I'm not expecting every single one to give it 5/5, but I've heard so many bad things and I can't see why. It wasn't without flaws, but it also wasn't without merit.

And another thing... (someone please reply to stop me endlessly editing my post ;0) The "awful" $27m actually represents pretty much exactly the average of the last ten years of that opening weekend. So much for the pinky lefty liberal media trying to undermine Christianity :0P

[Cranberry]

The $90 mil international take is definitely good, but it doesn't just need to break even with its $180-250 mil budget, but surpass it. The huge drop-off in the states is troubling (and people obviously don't have that much to do if I Am Legend and Alvin and the Chipmunks made a combined $121.5 mil in the US in a single weekend, even closer to Christmas). I guess we'll see.

[Elzaim]

But remember - I am legend has zombie-people-things in it, which would appeal to the millions upon millions of zombie lovers - and Alvin and the chipmunks is a family-friendy kid 3d cartoon movie with annoying singing chipmunks.

Plus with all the bad rap from any Christian saying never so see the movie since it's blasphemous - I can see maybe why sales aren't so good so far. And it's not really a 'family' film either - it's more or less a film for readers of the novel. fans or people who are going against the 'Christian' belief and seeing it just to see how non-Christian it is.

Either way, I'm praying that they'll continue with the series. If they don't my heart would break.

[Cranberry]

Eh. I liked it, but not that much. I shudder to think of what they'd do with the second and third books, which are much more anti-church. At this point, I'd be happy with a DVD with the proper ending on it. It's already filmed, so that wouldn't be difficult.

Also, I recognize that I Am Legend and Alvin and the Rape of My Childhood appeal to a much larger audience. I was simply refuting the point that GC didn't do so well because this is a busy time of year. People do have time to see movies around Christmas; it's actually when the studios like to roll out some blockbusters and make a killing. Just look at the LotR movies, Narnia, the Oceans 11 movies and Titanic, among others.

[Enriana]

I was nauseated at this from the start. One of my favourite books, turned into a MOVIE? It was the stuff of nightmares.

Do note that I haven't seen the movie (and never intend to - see stuff of nightmares), but I've read up on it a bunch and nothing is pleasing.

The preview made me cringe with pain - sky iron is not GOLD, goddamnit! and Mrs. Coulter is a brunette! Although I like Dakota as Lyra, nearly everything else makes me itch. It was a truly fabulous book and being turned into a movie could only go downhill.

It doesn't seem as disastrous as I thought it might be, though after reading an article about how the plot was to be "watered down" to prevent religious people offended disgusted me - if you're going to do something, do it RIGHT.

That said, my opinion is incredibly biased and I have heard numerous people get turned on to the books thanks to the movie. I still have no intentions of watching it, but this thread kept coming to the top of Chit-Chat, and I'm not exactly known for keeping my opinions to myself.

[Goldenchaos]

Part of the reason that it likely didnt do good was that it is not as widely publized book series. Not as huge as Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings( ..I hate his writing, I couldnt stand the Hobbit, so, Im not touching any of his books ever), much less Narnia. So, US people were skeptical of it, but some of the reviews DID praise the book, thats good, at least. I don't see how it was rushed, if it was, maybe they couldt done with making it just a tad longer, three hours...fit in the essentials, making the pacing respectably slow, but not too much to where itd bore people.

Yea, it probably won get a sequel, which is a shame..I was hoping for more of Lee Scorsby and Hester