The Golden Compass. Minor spoilers on performances and style choices; plot points mostly left vague.

[amanuensis1]

Saw The Golden Compass yesterday.

Bearing in mind that no film version of this book could ever completely satisfy me--it's just too rich a book, and one I'm so close to that, yes, I would marry it if I could--I thought it was beautifully done. Everything was essentially included, spirit- and plot- and character-wise, and my quibbles are minor.

I was quite concerned about Lyra from the trailers, as most of her lines of dialogue seemed terribly dead and she looked so staid in every shot--okay, who the hell put together those trailers to make Dakota Blue Richards look so bad? She was a wonderful Lyra. Sassy, fluid, a skilled liar; you could believe all her moments of clever planning. Loved her.

I'm already a Daniel Craig fangirl, so he didn't need a thing to win me over; I knew he'd be a perfect Lord Asriel and he was. Loved his little corner-of-the-mouth grins at Lyra whenever she went all "oh no you di'int" on his adult ass.

Nicole Kidman is not my Mrs. Coulter, but that is my problem and not, I think, her fault. My Mrs. Coulter is several things: first, she's modeled on Natasha Richardson, who was the first narrator that I encountered performing an audio version. Second, she does not exude wickedness from moment one. She's elegance and charm and she gives Lyra the first idea that being a lady might not be a bad thing after all. And we don't see just how frightening she is until she and Lyra clash over the handbag. But Kidman's "va-va-voom, here comes evil in a tight dress" first appearance didn't gibe with that for me at all, so, that set things off badly for me. But Kidman got so much of Mrs. Coulter exactly--coldhearted, deceptive, and momentarily weak where Lyra is concerned; it is not fair for me to blame Kidman. It's my problem.

I'm on the side of fans who prefer their Iorek Byrnisson semi-emotionless, which means Ian McKellan, much as I love the guy, did not quite satisfy me. Iorek and the rest of the armoured bears are characterized quite specifically as not being human, which is why the love Lyra has for him is so profound. She loves him for what he is despite his lack of humor or human-type affection. It's also why Iofur (whatever they renamed him to in the film) can be lied to and tricked, because he does not want to be a true bear; he wants to be human. But how the hell do you show that in a film? I didn't expect that to be demonstrated; more of my "a film of this book could never completely satisfy" issue. Iorek was still well-done despite the choice to give him more inflection; I suspect on a re-watching I'll feel better about it.

Eva Green as Serafina Pekkala could not have been more perfect. Could not. And I can't imagine there will be many people displeased with Sam Elliot as Lee Scoresby. (My Lee's less grizzled, but it was easy to revise my image as soon as I heard he'd been cast.)

Freddie Highmore as Pantalaimon gets the same unfair criticism from me as Nicole Kidman does: he's not my Pantalaimon. My Pantalaimon doesn't have a child's voice, but why shouldn't Pan have that very thing, if he's the daemon of a child? It makes sense, so I have to shut up on this one.

I can never remember the actor who played John Faa, even though he's in 30% of the films I see, it seems. He was great, and so was the guy playing Farder Corum. (I keep thinking Paul Bettany's gonna look a lot like him in 30 years.)

And then there's that truncated ending. Not hacked-off, not abruptly done away with; to be fair, the ending works for the film. The cut still pokes at me, though. As things stand right now, Lyra's got one evil parent and one--well, not loving, but one semi-decent, on-the-side-we-want-to-win parent. The beauty of the book's ending is that Lyra realizes there's no one upon whom she can depend save for herself and Pan. I missed that, though I can see how moving the ending to the start of the next book does one crucial thing: it puts Lyra back in the story immediately. Otherwise we have to trust that the audience will be interested enough in this new character, Will, and a seemingly mundane setting, not to chafe and mutter, "Where the hell's Lyra and where are the freaking zeppelins 'n' polarbears 'n' shit?" for twenty minutes.

The religious issues--ah, what can I say that ten thousand Christians and atheists haven't said already. The Magisterium does feel like a church and not merely a government division. A great many stylistic choices in costume and setting and actions (genuflecting, etc.) reflect this. One notable moment comes when a rustic building of the Magisterium--named specifically as such--is shown and the entire mural-decorated front looks like a church. Overall I was pleased at how closely it dared to follow the spirit of the book. I think this film, isolated, has a voice against oppressive religious doctrine. But so does any given day on the History Channel. I mean, fifteenth-century Europe was not a pretty time in Christianity's history, but that doesn't mean those who consider themselves Christians today have to either embrace the auto-da-fe or get out. One can agree that mistakes have been made but still defend one's faith. So. Let's see how the next two films pan out.

One of my favorite scenes was between Lyra and Iofur, with her lying to him so smoothly; my heart was pounding at how perfectly done it was. I remember thinking, when she asks him, "Ask me something only a daemon would know," "Okay, in the book she asks to go into another room so he won't see her consult the compass; she can't do that in the film because that'll mess up the action, and if she just turns her back so he can't see that's kind of lame because of course he'd want to see what she's doing; how will they handle it?" And when she calls the alethiometer a daemon mirror--"We use them to see the knowledge in our eyes" (paraphrasing)--oh, I freaked at how clever an addition that was. I'm sure Pullman either wished he'd thought of that or he gave them the idea himself.

The technology was wonderful--not quite steampunk, no; too sophisticated for that. Cleverer. The carriage with its odd electrical gyroscope had me clenching my fists in delight.

The visual effect of the daemons losing their existence with the death of their humans was great (and I bet the film's creators were delighted that they got to have golden explosions of light all over the place in the fight scenes).

Hooray that they kept in the spy-fly in the tin, and Lyra's use of it!

A significant change near the beginning--the matter of who poisons the tokay. That was a big alteration from the book and yet I don't quibble with it at all, because let's face it--in a film, the villains require condensing, along with everything else.

Hey--for all you fans of the book--how many of you gasped, "Oh, no--" when Billy Costa referred to his daemon as "Ratter"? Yeah, you can all come over to my house for cookies and hot chocolate.

Comments

[dancesontrains.livejournal.com]

I've read a few semi-critical reviews of this film so far. Yours makes me feel a little better. I've been thinking for months 'If this film has been fucked up then I will kill somebody...'

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I wonder how book fans are feeling about it? If there's a consensus of "if you liked the book you'll like the film" or if they're split across the boards.

[christwise.livejournal.com]

Daniel Craig is a cutie but I thought his version of Lord Asriel was too nice actually. In the books he seems to like her even less than Mrs. Coulter.

I loved Nicole Kidman a lot but that was probably because I didn't expect to like her at all, so anything she did right was a huge surprise. Her stare-down with the Master was amazing. They cut back and forth so many times, no words, just glares and it was great.

I'm glad you like it since it seems to be doing poorly.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Poorly? Really? *checks* But it's number one at the box office?

[marinarusalka.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the movie a lot, too. It probably helped that it's been a while since I read the book, so the details were somewhat fuzzy in my mind and I probably missed a lot of the stuff they changed. But I thought they captured the spirit of the story and the world amazingly well.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I'm so close to the book that when they changed the order of the two major sequences towards the end, I couldn't comprehend where the story was going to go at that point. My brain sort of shut down, because I kept thinking, "Now she's carried off to Svalbard...no, wait, we've done that, now what??"

[elektrik-storm.livejournal.com]

I loved the way the daemons disappeared! amazing!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

That really delighted me, the first time we saw that. "Ooh, death! Pretty!" Heh heh. ^_^

[plaid-slytherin.livejournal.com]

Hey--for all you fans of the book--how many of you gasped, "Oh, no--" when Billy Costa referred to his daemon as "Ratter"? Yeah, you can all come over to my house for cookies and hot chocolate.

*raises hand* I did.

And momentarily when the screen went black at the end I thought we were having a Return of the King moment, that it wasn't ending there. And then we had credits and I said a bad word in a crowded theater.

I can see why they did it; I almost want to believe your idea about not starting TSK with Will over "happy ending! kids' movie! OMG YAY!"

I totally agree with you about DBR and the trailer... she was great! Why didn't the trailer show that?

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Come for cookies and be comforted! :D

I am very, very glad I learned of the excision of the original ending before I saw the film. Or I'd've been saying bad words too. And, yeah, I never really thought it was in order to have a "happy ending."

[capri-chan.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I've been wondering if I should see the movie or not.

Of course, I should probably re-read the books first, because I remember very, very little about this series. Just about the only big thing I remember is a death, and that's because it was spoiled for me before I had ever heard of the series.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Sometimes not rereading the books is a blessing, because you expect less from the film!

[lolaraincoat.livejournal.com]

Just back from seeing the movie with two friends who haven't read the books, and was interested to see that they were able to follow along nicely - some of the reviews I read suggested that this wouldn't be possible. Having read the books, I was almost as worried as you were going into the movie, but - yeah, the look and feel overall was just about right.

As to the supposed de-theologizing of the story ...HAH! It was still very hard to miss all the inverse-Milton.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I was watching with several friends, one of whom hadn't read the books--it was fun to hear all his audible reactions as the film progressed!

[persephone-blue.livejournal.com]

Kidman wasn't my Mrs. Coulter, either. The character was a little more subtle about her loyalties and such, in my head. Also, I imagined her with dark hair and with less supermodel-like features. The part where Mrs. Coulter is trying to open the tin was exactly the sort of desperation that developed her character for me, though.

Movie visuals were lovely, from the technology to the interiors of the college.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

The visuals were so lovely I think I took 99% of them for granted, now that I'm thinking about it.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I thought the flick was pretty darn good. I do have a bit of a continuity issue with Iorek's armor -- for something that's supposed to be his "soul", he left it behind enough times. And I really think they could've added just a touch of exposition here and there, no more than ten minutes total, to make the movie flow a bit more smoothly. Apart from that, though, I was very happy with what they did.

The big concern I have now is that the second and third books are darker, more convoluted, and much more concerned with the philosophical basis of the story. Much greater chance of things getting muddied. But I am hopeful -- Chris Weitz did a bang-up job on the directing and adaptation, so maybe he can pull it off.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

for something that's supposed to be his "soul", he left it behind enough times.

Good point! I wonder what was up with that--it couldn't be that it was too tricky to animate; that'd be a lame reason. Possibly because they didn't want the entire audience giggling, when he and Lyra try to cross the ice bridge and he's too heavy, "Um, Iorek, you're wearing twelve tons of meteorite on your back; you wanna try it without?"

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

i really enjoyed the film as well. I love this book like crazy, but it has been a few years since i read it last, so I couldn't think of anything that i'd wanted in that didn't make it. I'm hoping to reread soon, maybe over the holiday break.

I was so sad over ratter! but that has more to do with me and rats than anything.

I loved all the technology too, i thought it was really well done, and gorgeous. I was thinking "steampunk" as I saw it too, but that had more to do with the fact that it was familiar technology designed in an unfamiliar way rather than the lack of polish that 'steampunk' sort of implies. Also, Sam's been talking about it so much on his journal lately, it was in my head.

I loved Lee and Iorek so much. SO MUCH. and I thought they did a marvelous job of the daemons, especially the ones that changed all the time. And yes, the effect of the daemons exploding when their person died was such marvelous visual shorthand, they used the effect really well.

I was totally pleased, and I'm hoping they'll make the others. Meanwhile, Prince Caspian trailer! but really i'm excited for the Dawn Treader afterwards, which was always my favorite.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I didn't get Prince Caspian! We had lame-o trailers featuring Will Ferrell. (Well, we did get The Spiderwick Chronicles and Inkheart; those had potential.) But I did see the Prince Caspian trailer online. My favorite was always The Silver Chair; how old will I be when that one shows up? Eeesh.

[moltensulfur.livejournal.com]

With the exception of Nicole Kidman, I pretty much agree with you. The only expectation I had of the movie was that the daemons were realistic and I found myself grinning every time there was a shot of kids running with their deamons along side them. Oh, and Lord Asriel's daemon rocked!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

At first I was annoyed because I didn't see daemons with the adults in crowds, but then that became more consistent. And with adults, their daemons wouldn't all perch on their shoulders in obvious spots, so that made sense too as I got more used to it.

[randomblade.livejournal.com]

mm, I think the cut at the end, though it fussed me at first is to make the transition into the second 'book' (which starts with will) easier.

Agree with you abour iorek and scoresby. Man, though, I was persuaded by film scoresby just because he's such a *flirt*. With EVERYONE. Seriously. CG? Inanimate objects? 12 year old girls? No one is safe. I'd have done him.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Hee, you are right; I'd be a giant pushover for Scoresby!

[annephoenix.livejournal.com]

You've made me a little more hopeful as I'd heard nothing but bad until now .... I'm still not sure if I dare to watch it!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Are you as big a fan of the trilogy as I am? ^_^

[slash-kitten.livejournal.com]

hah, I wish I had the patience to type up such a review! But you pretty much summed up my impression of the movie, except I had a bigger problem with Ma Costa than I had with Nicole Kidman as Mrs Coulter, plus I imagined Mrs Coulter's daemon a lot different. But, like you said, that's my problem. (Speaking of daemons, oh yes, I gasped so loudly half the audience shushed me. Poor Billy!) But they really did the daemons justice, imo, which I'm eternally glad for because this could have gone so wrong. But Pan was so... Pan-like :P Like him changing his fur white when Mrs Coulter talks about going north in Jordan?

Their world was not exactly what I'd imagined, of course, but it was so cleverly done, I loved it, even though the rotating thingies were a little too sci-fi in my opinion. They were cool, no doubt, but... a little too much.

Did they really rename Iofur in the original? I'd heard that, but in the German (dubbed) version, he's Iofur alright. Omg, his little daemon poppet! I was also surprised that Iorek kills him in the movie by ripping his jaw off, too. Even though they did leave out the whole eating his heart thing, I'd expected something... less grisly? (But then, really, it isn't a children's movie)
The ending still irks me though, because there's still almost 70 pages left of the book?! Man. You're right when you say that it's probably just for the best of the second movie, but that one's even longer than the first one! Are they gonna make the last one into two movies? *sigh*

But oh man, I can't wait for the mulefa.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

Oh, I did love Pan changing his fur white; that was a perfect moment! And I too didn't expect they'd leave the jaw-ripping-off moment; it startled me that they did, but they also did a great job at making it look less grisly than I'd imagined it, for them kiddies.

[no-mad-skillz.livejournal.com]

K, here's a question for you, since you're clearly knowledgeable:

First of all, I , um, haven't read the books but I want to! Yes! *nodnod* I just got the HDM trilogy for my 11-year-old Avid Reader!Son. Are they, in your opinion, appropriate for his age? I thought so when I bought them (he's read all of HP and Narnia), but I'd like to know what you think. Second, I planned to take him and his 6-year-old brother to see the movie next weekend. (We totally would have been there bringing up the box office numbers this weekend, but they were at their dad's.) Would seeing the movie first lessen the book experience? And third, um, is it irredeemably perverse to give anti-Christian books for Christmas? :)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

1. I never worry about whether a book is too old for a kid; I figure they can grow into it. I'm more worried about choosing something they've already read! But the language of the books is simple; I was reading books above that level when I was eleven, so, yeah. Should be fine!

2. Take them to the film. They'll love the effects and the kids and the animals. And I probably wouldn't try to hold kids back from seeing a film if they wanted to with the argument, "Don't you want to read the book first?" I might ask them, but I'd let them make the decision.

3. Perverse? Heck, I'm the wrong person to ask. ^_^ Actually, I'd probably argue that it's good to talk about the philosophy of religion any day, especially on holidays. Including the arguments against it, because if one's faith can't stand up to discussion, how secure is it, anyway?

[mieronna.livejournal.com]

Book fan here.
I just watched it today and I've been... well disappointed is to put it mildly. Mostly with Lyra. All the positive aspects you noted didn't work for me at all. Especially her scheming moments. Now, that might be the fault of the dubbing, which, as usual for fantasy films was crappy beyond belief, because I seemed to get glimpses of the actress playing it right - only the voice and expression didn't match that at all so it just felt flat out wrong. Damn it. I also didn't like all those "OMG, I know what's going on and how to solve it, even though I've been acquainted with the situation for about 3 seconds" moments.

I did enjoy the technology and the general feel of the world - especially Iorek and the Magisterium. I'm looking forward to how they do the angels in the next one. Actually, apart from Lyra, I was mostly pleased with the characters. My issues were more with the direction/cutting and so on. Well, maybe it'll grow on me when I watch it in English some day.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it was the dubbing? Bad dubbing--whoof. I remember starting up a Japanese DVD and not realizing the default was set to "Dubbed English track." English came out of someone's mouth and I shrieked and leapt for the MENU button.

[tourniquette.livejournal.com]

I'm actually looking forward to seeing this now, as nervous as I am with book-to-film translations. It's funny; I bet Craig and Green came as a package deal because they worked on Bond together (agents and producers manage to do that a lot -- look at how many Bruckheimer films Keira Knightley has been in). Now I just have to drag a friend from another state to watch it.

I actually leant the first book out to my aunt to read, and now I'm regretting it because I want to re-read it before I go. Damn.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

If that movie's ever MSTied there'll be a dozen Casino Royale jokes, you know it. ^_^

[tsuj.livejournal.com]

Natasha Richardson would have been a great Mrs. Coulter!
I actually only read TGC this week, and saw the film this evening. My sister has been pushing it for years. "It's my Harry Potter," she explained recently. That's what convinced me to read it. My "Harry Potter" is still "Harry Potter" though I will read the next books in the series.

As I read the book, I did have images from the movie adds of Nicole Kidman, so I imagined her as Coulter as I read.
I loved that they kept "ent" in the film.
I thought the animal cgi was pretty good, but still read as cgi. The weakest point for me was the golden monkey. It just didn't work. Did he never talk in the book? Even though I just read it, I don't recall.
I wonder if they'll 'kill' the de-daemoned kids off in the next film? Again, I haven't read the book sequel yet, but at the end of the movie (in what was possibly the worst scene) Lyra says she's going to help those kids get their Daemons back.

Loved the sets and costumes. Kidman's make-up was great, but the gyptians' excesive eyeliner was a bit distracting.
I also felt that while the movie Ma C. was fine, she was not at all like the book Ma.

The spy flies were spectacular!

The big battle bored me, but battle scenes usually do. I did like that the Daemon's turned to Dust at their demise.
I took the Daemon profile test on
http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/
I'm a gibbon. Then I took it as Draco Malfoy. He was a raccoon.
I was too tired to do Harry (Wow! There's a sentence I didn't expect to write), maybe tomorrow. ;)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

No, the monkey never does talk in the book, and is never named! It's one of the delightfully creepy things about Mrs. Coulter's daemon.

Battle scenes can be darned boring sometimes, can't they? I enjoyed the ones in this film, but some films have had battle scenes so dull or confusing that they sink the film for me. Gladiator, Spider-Man, and Batman and Robin were three films I lost interest in really fast because the fight scenes were so dull.

[mybrokenlocket.livejournal.com]

I have to ask- at the beginning of the credits, did it say "Based on the novel Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman," or was that just my theatre? Or am I just going crazy?

Kidman was not my Mrs. Coulter either. I first read the book around the same time I read Kushiel's Dart, so my mental picture of her is sort of tangled up with my picture of Melisande.

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

You were not hallucinating! Northern Lights is the original name of the first book. That was its UK title. Guess it wasn't McGuffen-y enough for us Yanks.

Melisande! Ooh, my Melisande-picture is not my Mrs. Coulter-picture but she could be. If I thought hard.