The Golden Compass (spoilers eventually)

Post by **Kaylee** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:06 pm

utter ****. Not even in a 'they deviated from the source material!' geek way, in a 'it was badly paced, rushed, poorly acted and in parts almost random due to lack of explanation despite other sections being telegraphed with blinding obviousness and simple facts repeated many times so audience members who aint-right-clever-like will remember them, i.e.:

They announce the alethiometer as being the 'golden compass' at least four times! Now considering its bright gold and looks like a compass there's an argument that pointing this out once would be a bit overkill...

bah!

Obfleur · Post by **Obfleur** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:12 pm

Sam Elliott riding around on polar bears that are wearing armor?

How can it fail?

Post by **Kaylee** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:37 pm

Sam Elliot doesn't do much and the bears wearing armour is cool... except for the fact there is no blood. anywhere. in any battle. not a drop.

So, lots of CGI bears running round in unrealistic fights and Mr. Elliot having less than 10 minutes of screen time. Not a good combination.

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:52 pm

My heart's sank at the average reviews this has been getting. I actually met Philip Pullman a couple of weeks ago and he said it was good.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 11:16 pm

The fuss over the boycott will help its box office takings, no doubt :/

Post by **Kaylee** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 9:56 am

spiderfrommars wrote:My heart's sank at the average reviews this has been getting. I actually met Philip Pullman a couple of weeks ago and he said it was good.

Pullman is a total sellout. I loved the guy too but this film is just bad. It can't even come under the 'knockabout fun' category since it takes itself too seriously.

They must have literally drove a dump truck full of money up to his house

The fuss over the boycott will help its box office takings, no doubt :/

The insane thing is there is absolutely no reason to boycott this flick. There are no religious undertones- the Magisterium are now a general autocratic, mysterious thought-police, there's not the slightest bit of gore or even what I'd call serious violence (the polar bears tend to slap people once who very obligingly fall down dead with no visible wounds), no bad language... it's an utterly pedestrian and uninspiring screenplay turned into a film with pretentions far, far higher than it could reach even for the children in the audience.

Anybody who honestly throws a hissy fit on religious grounds regarding this movie needs their head examined imo.

Metal Vendetta · Post by **Metal Vendetta** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 2:34 pm

Ah, but the film will lure children into reading the books which are written by an evil atheist and will tell them that there is no god...don't you see?!? DON'T YOU SEE?!?!?!

Obfleur · Post by **Obfleur** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 2:42 pm

GHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 4:19 pm

Saw it last night. I know it's a family movie but it felt like a kids movie. It skipped over some darker aspects and cutting out the book's last few chapters is a big blunder IMO.

But the concept of daemons is so genius that this easily stands out from the crowd of recent fantasy flicks. Except for Stardust probably (which I haven't seen).

sprunkner · Post by **sprunkner** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 5:13 pm

Metal Vendetta wrote:Ah, but the film will lure children into reading the books which are written by an evil atheist and will tell them that there is no god...don't you see?!? DON'T YOU SEE?!?!?!

Ah... this would be why I became [edit: turns out he was] Catholic after reading the Lord of the Rings.

Post by **Best First** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 5:20 pm

And why i became a buddist after reading Roger Hargreaves' Mr Happy.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 7:12 pm

And why I became a Scientologist after reading the tv guide review for Battlefield: Earth.

Post by **Kaylee** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:06 am

spiderfrommars wrote:Saw it last night. I know it's a family movie but it felt like a kids movie. It skipped over some darker aspects and cutting out the book's last few chapters is a big blunder IMO.

But the concept of daemons is so genius that this easily stands out from the crowd of recent fantasy flicks. Except for Stardust probably (which I haven't seen).

I want to see Stardust

A couple of friends who generally have very good tastes in such things said it was awesome

Ozz · Post by **Ozz** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 10:42 am

Karl Lynch wrote:I want to see Stardust A couple of friends who generally have very good tastes in such things said it was awesome

Well, it is.

I wanted to see Golden Compass, cause there was a trailer before Stardust and it looked interesting, but the version our cinemas air is dubbed instead of subbed. So, pass.

Post by **Kaylee** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:01 am

Personally I adore Robert DeNiro, I'd have to rank him as one of the best actors out there at the moment and there truly aren't many of them about. So I thought it unlikely he'd lend his name to something poor and much less not give a good show

Must rent it now

You might like GC. I know people who do, although from the noises in the Cinema I don't think I was alone in being unimpressed either

As I think I already laboured to death its biggest faults imo are its rushed pacing and poor acting (Fader Corum (sp?) basically monotones every line he has and Lyra emits a porcine squeal whenever she gets captured rather than actually crying out etc.). they should have left out more and developed/built up what they had rather than running through it just for the sake of it. Might have been able to do away with the opening info-dump narration then

rant rant rant. I need more lavender I think

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:01 am

TGC has apparently underperformed on its opening weekend. Seems those sequels are pretty unlikely.

Karl Lynch wrote: poor acting (Fader Corum)

I liked most of the supporting cast but he was pretty bad.

Post by **Kaylee** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:02 am

spiderfrommars wrote:Seems TGC has underperformed on its opening weekend. Seems thoses sequels are pretty unlikely.

to be frank: yay. Maybe in ten years someone will come along, have another go and not make a dog's dinner out of it. I wanted to see the stage production but it was sold out before it opened and apparently was the pwnage

The Last Autobot · Post by **The Last Autobot** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 5:32 pm

Rebis wrote:And why I became a Scientologist after reading the tv guide review for Battlefield: Earth.

But defnitely forgot about it after seeing the actual *crap. crap* movie?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 7:51 pm

The Last Autobot wrote:
Rebis wrote:And why I became a Scientologist after reading the tv guide review for Battlefield: Earth.
But defnitely forgot about it after seeing the actual *crap. crap* movie?

There was a movie?

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:22 pm

You know what I thought when I saw the poster of this movie?

"How the HELL do these bears get into their armor?"

Heck, how do they make armor? Bear paws are not really good for using tools, y'know.

I think this'll be one fantasy movie I'll pass. I had some bad experiences with fantasy movies recently. Bridge to Terabithia was utter ****, barely could watch it to the end (and this from the director of Simpsons?) and Starsdust, while interesting, was not really mind-blowing (and most of the characters who took up 50% of the trailers turned out to be minor hi-then-die guys...)

I hope the make the second part of Narnia soon. Or the Hobbit.

Obfleur · Post by **Obfleur** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:25 pm

I love bears.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 9:28 pm

Obfleur wrote:I love bears.

Who doesn't? But I hope you knew they are actually forerunners of a Transformer invasion.

http://transformers.wikia.com/wiki/Chainclaw

Post by **spiderfrommars** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 10:07 pm

BB Shockwave wrote:
Heck, how do they make armor? Bear paws are not really good for using tools, y'know.

Well he's not just a bear, he's a Panserbjørne, and they have opposable thumbs on their front paws.

Obfleur · Post by **Obfleur** » Fri Dec 14, 2007 10:39 pm

Holy ****. They would rule the world!