Archive for December 8th, 2007

2007.12.08

The Golden Compass Movie

This will be quick as I’m typing this from my iPhone and sitting in Waikiki and should be having more fun on the beach and surfing rather than geeking out. Anyways, the movie The Golden Compass can be summed up thus: a jaw dropping experience. This phrase will have more meaning after you see the film. I really liked the adaption of Phillip Pullman’s book and though they dropped almost completely the theistic/gnostic aspects of the book, my single biggest complaint was the non-stop pacing. No breaks in the plot to take a breather and mentally digest what we experience on the screen!

That being said, I would love to see this movie again after reading the books to refresh my memory. My friends, who read the books more recently than I did kept reminding me of bits they left out which would have been great to include. Fantasy movies have traditionally not done well with most audiences but I think Peter Jackson helped create a formula that works pretty well and that The Golden Compass and the Narnia franchises would do well to emulate in their own ways. I hope that with the next movies in the series make the movies just a bit longer so we, the audience, can take in their vision.