The Golden Compass
Dec. 11th, 2007 12:09 amI saw the movie with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sesame_seed at the absurdly overpriced Loews New Brunswick. Golden Compass hasn't been getting very good reviews, either from newspapers or on livejournal, but you know what? I really liked it. (Chrissy politely opined that it was "okay".) It looks amazing, it's very faithful to the book, the acting is fantastic, and most of all, it's a whirlwind adventure story that carries the main character all the way across the map, from Alternate Reality Oxford to the Frozen North.
It felt like a solid adaptation of Pullman's work, and an imaginative children's movie in its own right. You have drawing-room conspiracies, sea voyages, hot-air balloons, research laboratories, ice palaces inhabited by talking polar bears. Animal-shaped pieces of your soul to keep you company. Dismissive adults and adults who pretend to be interested in you so they can control you and the rare, good adults who take you seriously. Escape and rescue and craftiness and courage! In fact, if you're a child with an imagination, this movie has everything.
( But... )
The real question of this movie is: who's it for? The focus on children and how they are treated by adults, the daemons, and the over-the-top adventure plot all make it a children's movie, but it doesn't have the values of a modern children's movie. It doesn't advocate diplomacy and non-violent solutions, it doesn't advocate honesty (the opposite!), and if you are religious, well. Though names have been changed to protect the guilty, the movie is still obviously anti-religious (or at least, anti-Catholic). It's also full of stereotyped ethnic groups, from the Gyptians (gypsies) to the Cossacks guarding the experimental center. Also, people die in large numbers in this movie, although they die very prettily and there is no blood, and also (so far) only bad guys have died.
In fact I think the answer to the question "who is this movie for?" is children of the last century. XD; Barring that, children who have grown up reading Edwardian adventure and suspense stories. (Are there even any of these?) And barring that: me. ^__^ It feels so great being the designated audience for once!
( Themes - some spoilers for the book )
...I got a little off-topic. Anyway, I think Pullman's themes are a little silly, though I can appreciate that he has themes, and isn't just writing an adventure novel. On the other hand, I really love his world-building, as well as his devotion to the children's literature of a bygone era, and in those areas, I think The Golden Compass is a perfectly good film adaptation.
sesame_seed at It felt like a solid adaptation of Pullman's work, and an imaginative children's movie in its own right. You have drawing-room conspiracies, sea voyages, hot-air balloons, research laboratories, ice palaces inhabited by talking polar bears. Animal-shaped pieces of your soul to keep you company. Dismissive adults and adults who pretend to be interested in you so they can control you and the rare, good adults who take you seriously. Escape and rescue and craftiness and courage! In fact, if you're a child with an imagination, this movie has everything.
( But... )
The real question of this movie is: who's it for? The focus on children and how they are treated by adults, the daemons, and the over-the-top adventure plot all make it a children's movie, but it doesn't have the values of a modern children's movie. It doesn't advocate diplomacy and non-violent solutions, it doesn't advocate honesty (the opposite!), and if you are religious, well. Though names have been changed to protect the guilty, the movie is still obviously anti-religious (or at least, anti-Catholic). It's also full of stereotyped ethnic groups, from the Gyptians (gypsies) to the Cossacks guarding the experimental center. Also, people die in large numbers in this movie, although they die very prettily and there is no blood, and also (so far) only bad guys have died.
In fact I think the answer to the question "who is this movie for?" is children of the last century. XD; Barring that, children who have grown up reading Edwardian adventure and suspense stories. (Are there even any of these?) And barring that: me. ^__^ It feels so great being the designated audience for once!
( Themes - some spoilers for the book )
...I got a little off-topic. Anyway, I think Pullman's themes are a little silly, though I can appreciate that he has themes, and isn't just writing an adventure novel. On the other hand, I really love his world-building, as well as his devotion to the children's literature of a bygone era, and in those areas, I think The Golden Compass is a perfectly good film adaptation.