UKC

went to see this this aft, and was pleasantly surprised... it had taken such a panning in the reviews i'd seen, i didnt have particularly high hopes for it.

i think it brought pullman's world to life pretty well, and dakota richards was a good lyra

my main complaint would be why so short..? it felt very rushed at 113 mins, instead of letting the story develop they kept having to tell the audience what was going on. it could have been an extra 30-40 mins and still wouldnt ahve been a particularly long film, and would have avoided it feeling rushed in places

i was pleased though that its critical position towards religious institutions hadnt been neutered; i was worried that to make it america-friendly that would have been watered down to the point it would have made the story pointless. bodes well for the subsequent films, if they get made... though they *will* have to be longer, or they really will be confusing...

all in all, flawed, but not a bad effort...

thoughts anyone...

gregor

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs: Im off to watch tonight... Im looking forward to it, but i always dread when they make Fantastic Books into Films.
Is it only 113m's long? I agree, seems a tad short.

I'll post what i think of it when i return...

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

I took my daughter and her friend to see it on Friday. I haven't read the book, so don't know whether it does it justice. On its own merits I thought the film was entertaining enough, I agree there were quite a few areas that could have benefited from a bit more development, bit overall, I don't think it deserves the panning it has received.

In reply to Masood:

some bits were pretty much identical to the book; other bits were rather rushed. *spoiler alert* (though not really, as it tells you pretty much at the beginning...) the nature of the gobblers, and dust, is revealed much more subtley in the books. also, the beginning, in oxford, is much longer, allowing you a better chance to get to know the characters of lyra and roger before the plot really takes off, so you care more for what happens to roger.

but, it could have been much, much worse...

gregor

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

Saw this last night. Not read the books (will do at some point) so couldn't complain about any differences, but even so I didn't except it to be that good for some reason. Thought it was quite enjoyable though. Can't complain about the length either - in fact it's quite refreshing to have a film that's not 3 hours long!

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs: Just got back from seeing it.
I thought they did very well, considering the depth of the book. But it only gets deeper with the SK and then the AS.

I was a bit disapointed that the end was, well, not really an Ending but not at all the next step into the SK.
I also got abit tired of the numerous 'One liners' (Hollywood?)

Dont get me wrong though, i enjoyed it and it will be a great Triolgy, but seriously people... Those who havnt read it, Read it.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

Haven't read the book OR seen the film.

But have read an interview with the author - apparently he was disappointed as the books are intended to be very anti religion, and a lot of this was taken out?

In reply to AliceW:

Me an' my daughters thought it was a really good film a nd this despite reading the books too. The anti organised religion theme is still crystal clear in the movie I'm glad to say.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:


As you say; the main problem i it's too short and felt a bit rushed.

Mrs Coulter can gobble me anytime though....sorry.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

As has already been said, it ends as more of an intro to the full trilogy than a story in itself and I for one wish they had filmed all three at the same time to reduce the wait between each one.

Graeme.

In reply to AliceW:
I've heard him interviewd on a fair few occasions, some at length and he is rather anti christian.

In the 3rd book the point is made that "the wrong side" gained authority in heaven and when the authority (ie God) is killed off he has laready made it something of an irrelevance

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

I was rather annoyed that the discovery by the reader of the books that the plot involves parallel worlds (quite a lot of the fun) was just "given away" at the beginning, more or less rendering the film superfluous

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

I loved it! I adored the books when I first read them and I felt it faithfully reproduced everything I remembered. The only casting I didn't feel comfortable with was Lee Scoresby but, hey, that's a personal thing - he just wasn't like I imagined him. Very good summary at the start of the film too; I did wonder whether they'd just let it develop as the books did but this way worked better I think.

In reply to Erikka:
i thought it was dire. poorly acted, terrible cheesy dialogue.

In reply to Erikka:
The only casting I didn't feel comfortable with was Lee Scoresby

yes, I felt the same, he felt too much as though he had stepped out of the wild west rather than the more modern character in the book. I liked it as a whole, but the tacked on happy ending was a huge distortion of the book. And a bit bowdlerised on the whole - as my friend's 11 year old daughter pointed out, how did two polar bears manage to fight to the death without so much as a drop of blood being seen? I think they lost out on a lot of the interest by aiming the film at a much younger audience than the books themselves.

In reply to Psychopathic_Barbie:


Exactly! I couldn't understand WHY he didn't gel with me but I think you've hit the nail on the head there.

I thought the bear fight was still pretty fearsome though!

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:


This film was quite clearly a remake of the film of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

I have not read Pullman's books, or Kesey's for that matter; I am only comparing the film adaptations.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs: I saw it last week. The only thing that disappointed me was that I had to sit through the whole movie before I heard Kate Bush's sublime singing voice.

In reply to Psychopathic_Barbie:

Doesn't Iorek Byrnison tear off Iofur Rakinson's jaw or somesuch? I was looking forward to that bit!

Started re-reading the triology in anticipation. Still loved the first two but got bored with The Amber Spyglass - I really didn't think that was the best of the three. I think the Mary/wheels thing just annoys me - seems a bit ridiculous.

In reply to Nao:
>
He does that in the film too but very quickly and there's little gore. probably to keep within the PG rating.