The Golden Compass

[Zarniwoop]

Having tried extremely hard to avoid all the trailers for this one, and am I the only one to notice that all the modern trailers now contain 90% of all the best bits of the film leaving nothing to actually go and see and they wonder why the cinemas are always half empty..

Sorry I digress,

I have not read the books so had no preconception's of what things should look like nor did I have any knowledge of significant changes in material to make it fit the big screen. With all that in mind here is my impression of that film...

I really liked it, I was most excited to go and see this, despite not knowing anything about it and I was not disappointed in the slightest. The pacing was very good, the cast was inspired and the mix of sfx and real imagery was seemless. The characters were well rounded and you did find yourself feeling part of their lives as they progressed through the story.

I can not wait for further installments of this saga, I will buy the books but will probably wait til after the films to read them so as not to prejudice my view

[EvilGinger]

The books are well worth the read Philip Pulman is very much a thinking mans author, I have yet to see the film but have heard very good even glowing reviews so very much want to

 

[nomad3k]

Well, I've not read the books or seen the film, but my brother-in-law said that he hated it.  He really loved the books, and was hoping they'd do as good a job as LOTR.  Sadly he was really very disappointed.  So good luck.  It may be better to see the film and then read the books.  At least that way the differences aren't seen plot holes but as gaining more depth by reading.

Apparently some key bits were removed, probably because they were so grizzly.

[SecretHamster]

I too have not read the books, in fact until the movie came out I was blissfully unaware.

Now I have to say I am somewhat critical of modern movie making in the best of cases.

That said, and I know they have to cut the book to fit the movie, I found it confusing, contradicting and lacking in storyline. My other half pretty much said the same thing. That said we did actually manage to watch the whole thing, which is more than we've done for others.
As per most modern movies, it seems to try and put in a cast of stars around an unknown/untested starlet (which I can understand the main character being a child, but even so). The characters/actors seemed to not work well together.
The finally of the film seems to be a case of they decided already to the sequel/s, however I've heard nothing to say they have.

Okay who wants to start a critique on Beowulf ("I'm here to kill your monster")....