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Kim and I went to see The Golden Compass this morning. We very much enjoyed the books (especially the first one; there were a few implausible bits or gaps in the story's internal logic that bugged me a bit toward the end of the series), and while movies of favorite novels rarely live up to the source material, we were optimistic going in. But in the end, the film left us both relatively unimpressed. It wasn't an unenjoyable way to spend a morning (and goodness knows I needed some relaxation time as my semester wraps up), but I felt like I never really connected with the movie.
The biggest issue is that they just tried to pack in more details from the book than a two hour movie could handle. It's entirely possible that they really did try (mostly) to whittle it down to the bare minimum necessary to set up important plot points later, but the end result was that we didn't really get to spend enough time with any scene or character to absorb them emotionally. There aren't any major plot holes, in that we're given a reason why everyone does what they do, but the emphasis is on "given": over and over we're told in words what is going on because the movie doesn't take the time to show us enough for us to figure it out. (And because of some of the simplifications made to make the book manageable on film at all, many characters' stated motivations feel pretty flimsy.) And I was actually surprised by the degree to which I felt that the removal of references to "the Church" hurt the movie: religious authorities harming children generates a far greater sense of betrayal and moral outrage than the same actions by a generic totalitarian organization (even for an agnostic like me).
There are also just some odd or unfortunate choices. They've reversed the order of the two big action climaxes of the story (Bolvangar now comes after Iorek's return to Svalbard): this was presumably done to make the big escape battle the film's final set piece, but it does some odd things to the story. (Why would Lyra's captors take her miles away to the bears when there's a research station collecting children nearby? Why wouldn't the folks at Bolvangar be a bit suspicious about a child who just happened to wander into their hands in the Arctic night?) On his trip north, Lord Asriel is chased down and captured... but apparently for no reason at all, since we later learn that off screen he simply bribed his captors and set up a research lab. Christopher Lee puts in an appearance in a single brief disconnected scene, and I honestly don't know why.
And as the film closes with Lyra and Roger heading off to help Asriel (still being helped by Iorek and Lee Scoresby for no immediately discernible reason), Lyra goes off on a schmaltzy catalog of all the ever so important and exciting things that they have to do and how wonderful the world is, all to a backdrop of inspiring happy music. It's like an ad for the next two films, or perhaps a massive overcorrection to negative test audience reactions to the actual end of the story. (In this movie, no child ever dies or even necessarily appears to have been permanently harmed, ever.) Oh, and if you do see the movie, flee the theater before the closing credits really get going. The song that runs over them is laughably bad (it seems reminiscent of a first-draft Wikipedia stub about Lyra set to music).
After the film, we had lunch at the Honey Baked Ham cafe. Tasty food, but somehow almost every aspect of the service went bad. A little while after we ordered, there was a crash in the kitchen, and the waiter apologetically told us that there would be a short delay as Kim's omelette was re-made. When the food finally appeared, the omelette was piping hot... but our side dishes were barely clinging to warmth and my ham and brie melt had started to get soggy on the bottom. When I discovered after a couple of bites that it contained cheddar instead of brie, the waitress apologized and asked, "Oh, is that supposed to have the Swiss instead of the cheddar?" (We explained that no, the cheese on a ham and brie sandwich should be "brie".) She whisked my sandwich away for replacement, and brought out a couple of little fruit salad things we didn't want by way of apology. About the time Kim was finishing her omelette, my sandwich returned. It now had the brie and grilled onions as promised... and also bits of the original cheddar, as well as the bread that I had taken a couple of bites out of (which by now was reasonably soggy on both sides). To top it off (literally), each of the two halves of the reassembled sandwich had been given one of the slices with a bite out of it. The worst part was that I don't think our original waiter was likely at fault for any of it: he'd clearly written down my order properly, anyway. And since it was his first day (which he seemed eager to tell us each time he came to our table) we felt sorry for him, so while our tip was a bit light it wasn't the crushing insult that we secretly wanted it to be.
The biggest issue is that they just tried to pack in more details from the book than a two hour movie could handle. It's entirely possible that they really did try (mostly) to whittle it down to the bare minimum necessary to set up important plot points later, but the end result was that we didn't really get to spend enough time with any scene or character to absorb them emotionally. There aren't any major plot holes, in that we're given a reason why everyone does what they do, but the emphasis is on "given": over and over we're told in words what is going on because the movie doesn't take the time to show us enough for us to figure it out. (And because of some of the simplifications made to make the book manageable on film at all, many characters' stated motivations feel pretty flimsy.) And I was actually surprised by the degree to which I felt that the removal of references to "the Church" hurt the movie: religious authorities harming children generates a far greater sense of betrayal and moral outrage than the same actions by a generic totalitarian organization (even for an agnostic like me).
There are also just some odd or unfortunate choices. They've reversed the order of the two big action climaxes of the story (Bolvangar now comes after Iorek's return to Svalbard): this was presumably done to make the big escape battle the film's final set piece, but it does some odd things to the story. (Why would Lyra's captors take her miles away to the bears when there's a research station collecting children nearby? Why wouldn't the folks at Bolvangar be a bit suspicious about a child who just happened to wander into their hands in the Arctic night?) On his trip north, Lord Asriel is chased down and captured... but apparently for no reason at all, since we later learn that off screen he simply bribed his captors and set up a research lab. Christopher Lee puts in an appearance in a single brief disconnected scene, and I honestly don't know why.
And as the film closes with Lyra and Roger heading off to help Asriel (still being helped by Iorek and Lee Scoresby for no immediately discernible reason), Lyra goes off on a schmaltzy catalog of all the ever so important and exciting things that they have to do and how wonderful the world is, all to a backdrop of inspiring happy music. It's like an ad for the next two films, or perhaps a massive overcorrection to negative test audience reactions to the actual end of the story. (In this movie, no child ever dies or even necessarily appears to have been permanently harmed, ever.) Oh, and if you do see the movie, flee the theater before the closing credits really get going. The song that runs over them is laughably bad (it seems reminiscent of a first-draft Wikipedia stub about Lyra set to music).
After the film, we had lunch at the Honey Baked Ham cafe. Tasty food, but somehow almost every aspect of the service went bad. A little while after we ordered, there was a crash in the kitchen, and the waiter apologetically told us that there would be a short delay as Kim's omelette was re-made. When the food finally appeared, the omelette was piping hot... but our side dishes were barely clinging to warmth and my ham and brie melt had started to get soggy on the bottom. When I discovered after a couple of bites that it contained cheddar instead of brie, the waitress apologized and asked, "Oh, is that supposed to have the Swiss instead of the cheddar?" (We explained that no, the cheese on a ham and brie sandwich should be "brie".) She whisked my sandwich away for replacement, and brought out a couple of little fruit salad things we didn't want by way of apology. About the time Kim was finishing her omelette, my sandwich returned. It now had the brie and grilled onions as promised... and also bits of the original cheddar, as well as the bread that I had taken a couple of bites out of (which by now was reasonably soggy on both sides). To top it off (literally), each of the two halves of the reassembled sandwich had been given one of the slices with a bite out of it. The worst part was that I don't think our original waiter was likely at fault for any of it: he'd clearly written down my order properly, anyway. And since it was his first day (which he seemed eager to tell us each time he came to our table) we felt sorry for him, so while our tip was a bit light it wasn't the crushing insult that we secretly wanted it to be.
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As for the church/no-church thing, upon reflection it's possible that part of my frustration was also related to the later course of the story (especially the difficulties involved in casting a group originating in just one universe as the villain). But, hmm, maybe they've got a way out of that as well. We'll see... (assuming this one makes enough money for the studio to make the sequels).