The Golden Compass - The Official Thread

[Melonballer]

I did the Daemon thing and got a female Crow named Eurasta. I love her. My mom has a family of Crows that visits her house every day.

[twinmom]

Jen, as far as your question about this film being anti-religious, the film has taken a lot of that out, but the trilogy definitly has a lot of God issues and church issues going on. But my thought on that is, if one is exposed to an opposing view and your faith does not stand up to that view, then maybe you need to look at your faith more closely. In other words, your faith should be strong enough to handle whatever movie or book expressing a different view is thrown at you. To drw attention to this movie and to boycott it only brings more attention to it. Watch the movie, read the book and prehaps bring about some discussion with those around you. Could be interesting.

Awesome post!!!

[Alice's Wonderland]

Jen, as far as your question about this film being anti-religious, the film has taken a lot of that out, but the trilogy definitly has a lot of God issues and church issues going on. But my thought on that is, if one is exposed to an opposing view and your faith does not stand up to that view, then maybe you need to look at your faith more closely. In other words, your faith should be strong enough to handle whatever movie or book expressing a different view is thrown at you. To drw attention to this movie and to boycott it only brings more attention to it. Watch the movie, read the book and prehaps bring about some discussion with those around you. Could be interesting.

Well said. I'd also like to add that I'm a Christian and have read the books multiple times. I don't find anything offensive about them. In fact, I highly recommend that you read them, and I personally can't wait to see the movie!

[Nancywitt]

Well said. I'd also like to add that I'm a Christian and have read the books multiple times. I don't find anything offensive about them. In fact, I highly recommend that you read them, and I personally can't wait to see the movie!

Well said right back at you, Alice. By your reply it seems that you are an open-minded person. I read that Nicole Kidman would not be in the movie if it was too anti-religious. I hope she has read the rest of the books and still decides to be in the other two movies. Philip Pullman's views do get a bit risky, but they are just his views. As a free society we are able to make up our own views and dissagree with others.

[krystledm]

about the anti-religon. i was goning to see the movies, but i don't want to put myself in that position. nor do i want to give that man my money(lol)

so i won't be seeing it. but tell me how it goes guys!

[Queentitania19]

Ok, it looks like I'm the first person on this thread to actually see the movie ( I went to an advance screening on Tues). I can tell everyone to breathe easy, they cut religion out of the movie. Well, as long as you don't know the ruling council of the catholic church is called the Magisterium... but most people don't. They also cut about 5 chapters of the book off the end. So if you've read the books, brace yourselves for some serious whiplash. The movie cuts the story off at the knees.

However, putting that aside, it's a good movie. It hits the major points of the story and keeps moving. Lyra is impish, dishonest and endearing (just like she's supposed to be) Mrs. Coulter is mean, cold, manipulative and freaking scary (just like she's supposed to be). The only character that got mis-represented was Lord Azreal. They pretty much butchered his character and made it look like he was a kindly bumbling scientist that the evil Mrs. Coulter is persecuting. I think anyone who has read the books knows how inaccurate that is. The bears are awesome, special effects are good and the score is too. I like how they handled the challange of visualizing all the things that Lyra thinks in the books.

Overall I give it a B+

[GhostHost2]

I saw it last night and was disappointed. I guess it is a pretty good movie in it's own right. I started reading the book after the movie last night, the book is much better. I knew some about the books, before seeing the movie. The movie should have been about 3 hours long instead of 1hr45m (if you don't count the credits). I believe the movie should have left in all the depth and controversial ideas from the books. That is one thing that makes the books so unique. The ending of the movie was very anticlimatic, because they wanted to have (major spoilers):

Spoiler

a happy Hollywood ending

. They cut out the end of the book and that was a huge mistake.

[Queentitania19]

My roomate and I have been talking a lot about this since we saw the movie. It is our opinion that movie sabotaged itself. It has an inherent fan base in the readers of the books and it has it's own hate group which is the parts of christianity that hate anything that makes you question your faith. Instead of making a movie that stood by the ideas and themes of the books, making one group happy and the other angry, they tried to be safe and took the themes out. This only accomplished disappointing the fans of the books and the religious folk still won't go see it. Therefore the movie is a flop at the box office. Which is sad because it's really not bad.

The reason it's so short is because they took out the last part of the book. They actually filmed all of the book and then chickened out at the last second and took out the ending. The end of the movie probably would have added another 20 to 30 min to it. It better be on the DVD's, that's all I'm saying.

[wolfy]

I know Wolfette's private school is totally against this movie....It's not a Catholic School, but well known.....

[Queentitania19]

Oh, and FYI, I have a Crow Daemon. His name is Themius.

[Alice's Wonderland]

I saw it last night and was disappointed. I guess it is a pretty good movie in it's own right. I started reading the book after the movie last night, the book is much better. I knew some about the books, before seeing the movie. The movie should have been about 3 hours long instead of 1hr45m (if you don't count the credits). I believe the movie should have left in all the depth and controversial ideas from the books. That is one thing that makes the books so unique. The ending of the movie was very anticlimatic, because they wanted to have (major spoilers):

Spoiler

a happy Hollywood ending

. They cut out the end of the book and that was a huge mistake.

Seriously? That totally sucks. So what sets it up for the subtle knife? So is it worth seeing?

[Mr. Yeti]

What's so special about this ending that they cut out?

[SusieP.]

Instead of making a movie that stood by the ideas and themes of the books, making one group happy and the other angry, they tried to be safe and took the themes out. This only accomplished disappointing the fans of the books and the religious folk still won't go see it.

They actually filmed all of the book and then chickened out at the last second and took out the ending. The end of the movie probably would have added another 20 to 30 min to it. It better be on the DVD's, that's all I'm saying.

I think this is a really good explanation of what happened here. Also, I read that they may be using the "extra" footage as the beginning of the next movie, if there is one. Entertainment Weekly had a really great article this week. Daniel Craig brings up an interesting idea that the books ultimately leave room for a possibility of God, which is something a true atheist would never allow for. I thought that was a pretty smart insight.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,2015...164514,00.html

[Alice's Wonderland]

What's so special about this ending that they cut out?

It sets it up for the remaining two books, it explains why everyone is so obsessed with Dust,

Spoiler

shows Lord Asriel knows his stuff, and Roger dies which is what leads Lyra to follow Lord Asriel

[ALIASd]

'Golden Compass' loses its way

New Line fantasy brings in less than expected
http://www.micechat.com/forums/showt...e-84050p2.html