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The Golden Compass - Out Now

Goose

By Goose
in Film, TV & Radio

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bcass

bcass

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A clearer idea from the start and a bit more foreshadowing would have significantly improved HDM: it looks very amateurish next to something like Harry Potter which is extremely tightly plotted.

Tightly plotted? Overly contrived, more like.

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Mogster

Mogster

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Surely you don't actually think this?

HDM was a nice enough story and I definitely enjoyed the way it wasn't afraid to tackle some thorny issues like religion, but it's very childlike and (the thing that really spoiled it for me) was clearly made up as it went along. By the third book, Pullman's still cramming in new ideas and characters and races and concepts that weren't even hinted at in the first book. A clearer idea from the start and a bit more foreshadowing would have significantly improved HDM: it looks very amateurish next to something like Harry Potter which is extremely tightly plotted.

I finished a three year English degree last year, during which I read roughly two books a week, every week I was there. I didn't enjoy any of those as much as I did HDM, which I personally considder to be amazingly well written, and a bloody good story as well. Don't get me wronng though, I still love LOTR, and the world Tolkien crafted is richer and more cohesive than just about anything else in existence. However, I think Pullman simply does a far better job at telling his story. His sense of pace is impeccable, and his characters far richer. Absolutes like good and evil simply don't exist, which is a rare thing in fantasy.

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Comrade

Comrade

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There was a radio play adaptation a few years ago, though I didn't listen to it at the time because I was in the middle of reading the books. Did anyone hear that version?

I heard bits and pieces of it. I don't remember much of it, but I do remember that Lyra was very posh and precocious, so I wasn't too keen.

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  • 1 month later...
Twinbee

Twinbee

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Looking pretty tasty, now. Still have no idea whether I'm going to like it or not. The stage production was astonishing logistically, but some of the actors were majorly miscast IMO, and unfortunately the day I went Will was played by the understudy.

I'd still go again if they put it on again, though.

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  • 2 weeks later...
djezz

djezz

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I'm kind of disappointed actually, it doesnt look the way i imagined it but i understand that thats a personal taste thing and for everyone else victorian england may look like coruscant.

What bothers me more is that the books were written very much from lyra's perspective with her limited perception of the events surrounding her driving the way the story was told - this seems to be a lot more traditional and upfront about everything and more mundane as a result.

I think this time i may just stick with the books, they give me the feelings that sandman comics used to give me when i was a lot younger this just really aint making me feel anything.

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Mogster

Mogster

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I'm kind of disappointed actually, it doesnt look the way i imagined it but i understand that thats a personal taste thing and for everyone else victorian england may look like coruscant.

What bothers me more is that the books were written very much from lyra's perspective with her limited perception of the events surrounding her driving the way the story was told - this seems to be a lot more traditional and upfront about everything and more mundane as a result.

I think this time i may just stick with the books, they give me the feelings that sandman comics used to give me when i was a lot younger this just really aint making me feel anything.

Everything in the trailer was pretty much the way it was in the book. There were passages, in the Magisterium for instance where Lyra was nowhere near the action. Almost everything else going on in that trailer involed Lyra.

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Andy_Why

Andy_Why

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I do see what djezz is saying though. I'd always imagined the world as a more steampunk kind of place. With huge stone built buildings and roaring fires in every room, that kind of thing. For some reason I'd always pictured Lyra's world in either dusk, dawn or night too, so all the brightly shot scenes in that trailer aren't at all how I pictured it. It all looks a bit too neat for my liking. Still, it does seem like a nice enough realization of the universe, and I'll definitely go and see it.

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djezz

djezz

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Everything in the trailer was pretty much the way it was in the book. There were passages, in the Magisterium for instance where Lyra was nowhere near the action. Almost everything else going on in that trailer involed Lyra.

ahhh, you're probably right - it just feels to me that the trailer (and if i've recognised the scenes correctly) the film offers up information about the larger story a little too readily and loses a little of the mystery as a result - thats always been the magic for me whereas the film seems like its setting us up for twinkly stringed wonderment every time we see a daemon or whatever - the kind of stuff that the book wanted us to treat as everyday.

... With huge stone built buildings and roaring fires in every room, that kind of thing. For some reason I'd always pictured Lyra's world in either dusk, dawn or night too, so all the brightly shot scenes in that trailer aren't at all how I pictured it.

Yeah, thats *exactly* how i see it; i really couldn't have described how it better.

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JoeK

JoeK

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Well, it looks lovely enough, but as folk above have thought - it's nothing like my interpretation of what Lyra's world should be like.

I keep on thinking of FInal Fantasy when I look at the images!

Still, Pullman's been well into the whole thing, so I'm still looking forward to seeing the end result.

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Mogster

Mogster

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It's not exactly how I pictured the world either, but its close! The only thing's that are completely different from my ideas are the airships, which I'd always seen as Hindenberg type things. The ones in the trailer look a lot cooler though, so that's fine.

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Eats hoops and leaves

Eats hoops and leaves

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Did anyone see the stage version? I thought it was amazing and what I really liked about it was that it was done very minimalistic so that you still needed to use your imagination klike when reading the books. However on screen it will be different. I'm hoping they get it rioght though as it could be amazing.

Favourite bit of the stage version was when they went to the Land of the Dead and actirs dressed as the dead came from the back of the theatry and climbed through the audioence to the stage. was just so amazingly creepy and brilliantly done.

Did you see it at the London theatre? There was one bit where they were climbing up a mountain, and they made the floor revolve, so while the actors walked on the spot, some people built up the gradient with larger 'rocks' as it turned to the far side. Fucking wicked.

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  • 2 months later...
Goose

Goose

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New Trailer

HD

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808718640/video/4451177/

SD

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808718640/v.../standardformat

Plus some news about the ending of the first film..

Chris Weitz, director of the upcoming fantasy adventure THE GOLDEN COMPASS, the feature adaptation of the first of Phillip Pullman's spectacular HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy, recently posted an open letter to fans at HisDarkMaterials.org informing everyone of changes being made to the ending of the film. He's apparently ending the film a little earlier than the book in order to segue better into the second film THE SUBTLE KNIFE, showing a surprising amount of confidence that the first film will be successful enough to prompt New Line to pump money into a second. Here's part of what he had to say:

I have decided, along with Scholastic and New Line and, most importantly, Philip Pullman, to shift the concluding three chapters of Book I of His Dark Materials to the beginning of the second film of our trilogy, The Subtle Knife.

To me, this provides the most promising conclusion to the first film and the best possible beginning to the second.

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noizu

noizu

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Posted

Hope they're just using 'golden compass' bits in the trailer to keep the fancy words from freaking people out... As long as they call it 'alethiometer' at some stage in the script as well I won't mind.

Bears and monkey are looking pretty good in that trailer though.

It's an odd decision leaving out the climax of Northern Lights til the second film though. I mean, it's a really good cliffhanger,

the whole view of the city from another world and all that

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