The Golden Compass

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The Golden Compass Better than Harry Potter...

#51 moonunit4eva

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Posted 18 December 2007 - 02:27 AM

DON'T SEE THE MOVIE BEFORE YOU FINISH IT TJ!!!!!

Gah.. what is wrong with this boy?

*decides not to list the things...*

*sigh* Oh well.

I must say SA, you're absolutely right in stopping with the trilogy. I've read most of his other stuff. And so far the best other non-HDM book was The White Mercedes (The Butterfly Tattoo). It'd take you about two hours to read and is very... wow what's the word I'm looking for? It's nothing like HDM, but very human. Worth a read if you're bored.

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#52 The Journalist

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Posted 18 December 2007 - 09:40 AM

I don't think it mattered; it's a trilogy after all and besides, the movie rearranged the plot massively.

AND WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?!!

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#53 mrxak

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Posted 18 December 2007 - 12:48 PM

Sundered Angel, on Dec 17 2007, 04:24 AM, said:

For instance, I was extremely charmed with the way that alcohol was handled in Northern Lights (a.k.a. The Golden Compass). It managed to touch on the ways and reasons that adults use it, while still maintaining a kid's "what a crazy nonsense alcohol is" sensibility.

Ah yeah. But I can forgive that, since the context in which it appeared was completely skipped over anyway.

The Journalist, on Dec 18 2007, 09:40 AM, said:

I don't think it mattered; it's a trilogy after all and besides, the movie rearranged the plot massively.

AND WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?!!

It most certainly matters.

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#54 The Real Darth Bob

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Posted 28 December 2007 - 12:36 AM

I found the movie to be somewhat disappointing. I was okay as a movie by itself, but as a movie titled The Golden Compass, I was expecting something much much better. My main gripes were with the pacing of the film (way too fast, it's not a midsummer blockbuster, I was expecting something closer to LoTR in that sense) and the CGI which was subpar for a movie with a $180 million budget.

But what I really want to know is, wtf was up with those blue balls?

#55 moonunit4eva

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Posted 28 December 2007 - 12:45 AM

Blue balls? What the heck are ya talking about?

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#56 The Real Darth Bob

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Posted 28 December 2007 - 01:07 AM

moonunit4eva, on Dec 28 2007, 12:45 AM, said:

Blue balls? What the heck are ya talking about?

That thing! It's also used to 'power' the airships both Scoresby's and the Zeppelin, as well as a few other places. It reminds more of the Combine generator orbs from Half-Life 2 than anything out of Pullman's books.

#57 mrxak

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Posted 30 December 2007 - 12:33 AM

Yeah, they decided to make random things seem magical, despite the fact that there is no magic in the Golden Compass universe. It's all entirely scientific, er, experimental theologic.

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#58 G-Spark

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Posted 30 December 2007 - 09:27 PM

In my opinion:

Books = Pretty good.

Movie = Meh. It was good, but not as thrilling as the book. The movies never are unless you haven't read the book.

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#59 The Real Darth Bob

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Posted 30 December 2007 - 11:36 PM

mrxak, on Dec 30 2007, 12:33 AM, said:

Yeah, they decided to make random things seem magical, despite the fact that there is no magic in the Golden Compass universe. It's all entirely scientific, er, experimental theologic.

Interesting, I guess that makes it easier to avoid the whole Magisterium = Church thing because they can pretend they're all wizards or something.

G-Spark, on Dec 30 2007, 09:27 PM, said:

The movies never are unless you haven't read the book.

I actually thought LoTR did quite a good job at being just as, if not more, exciting than the books, but that's because it was allowed to have the proper pacing, unlike the HP movies or GG. I guess I'm mostly dissappointed that they tried to make a lowest denominator family/kids movie instead of actually doing something interesting with the series.

#60 G-Spark

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Posted 31 December 2007 - 11:57 AM

Oh yeah, I forgot about those. The Lord of the Rings movies are much better than the books in my opinion. Although since I got too bored with them to finish... I'd like to see the extended version of those movies though. Maybe of I go to my friends house. He's got everything Star Wars and Lord of the Rings you can imagine.

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#61 Shlimazel

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Posted 31 December 2007 - 11:58 AM

Quote

The Lord of the Rings movies are much better than the books in my opinion.

'

Guh!?! What! That's like saying that the movie of dune is better than the book!

#62 G-Spark

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Posted 31 December 2007 - 03:33 PM

Never heard of it.

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#63 Pufer

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Posted 01 January 2008 - 01:00 AM

Shlimazel, on Dec 31 2007, 09:58 AM, said:

Guh!?! What! That's like saying that the movie of dune is better than the book!

There are very few books that won't beat their respective movies. I mean, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich make movies for a living. That's their thing. Their novelizations of Stargate and Independence Day blow the socks off of both movies. While the Stargate movie blew bigtime, ID4 was really well done and a great movie, and both books, produced after the fact, beat both movies by a mile.

That said, the LOTR movies come as close as any movies I've seen at besting their literary counterparts.

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#64 The Real Darth Bob

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Posted 01 January 2008 - 05:07 AM

Shlimazel, on Dec 31 2007, 11:58 AM, said:

Guh!?! What! That's like saying that the movie of dune is better than the book!

The LoTR movies are vastly better than the Dune movie, which is pretty bad, so that's not even a valid comparison.

#65 mrxak

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Posted 01 January 2008 - 03:38 PM

The Real Darth Bob, on Dec 30 2007, 11:36 PM, said:

Yes, proper pacing and scale is so critical in making a movie out of an epic novel. What we got with The Golden Compass was the comic book version.

G-Spark, on Dec 31 2007, 11:57 AM, said:

Reading the Lord of the Rings is much more interesting than the movie. While it may not seem as exciting in parts, you really do get a massively rich and detailed background.

Shlimazel, on Dec 31 2007, 11:58 AM, said:

Guh!?! What! That's like saying that the movie of dune is better than the book!

We talking about the horrible Dune movie with Captain Picard as Gurney Halleck, or the fairly decent Sci-Fi original miniseries (and sequel encompassing the second and third books)? I rather enjoyed the Dune miniseries, and would say that it was comparable in keeping the spirit true to the book as the LotR movies did. That said, I liked the books in both cases better than their audio/visual counterparts, but I enjoyed the movies and miniseries quite a lot too. Just not the 1980s Dune, that thing is atrocious (hilariously so, and worth seeing once, but atrocious).

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#66 Sundered Angel

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Posted 02 January 2008 - 07:58 AM

Well, I saw the Golden Compass movie last night, and it wasn't as bad as I had feared. Certainly it was over-condensed, but having read the book that didn't stop me from following the plot. The watering down of the religious/philosophical themes was slightly annoying - it'll come back to bite them if they continue with the trilogy.

That said, the casting was perfect. I know Pullman himself asked for Nicole Kidman, who was brilliant as Mrs Coulter, but the one who floored me was Lyra. Who is this Dakota Blue-Richards, and where did she learn how to act like that?

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#67 G-Spark

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Posted 02 January 2008 - 05:50 PM

Lyra kinda creeped me out at first. She seemed really freaky looking and acted like it too when she was at the gate of the college. After that, eh, not so much. I like Lee a lot. He looks cooler than I thought he would, but then again, the little images of the people in my head are never cooler looking than the actors so...

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#68 mrxak

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Posted 03 January 2008 - 12:53 AM

Yeah, the casting was pretty much the only thing they did right with The Golden Compass.

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#69 G-Spark

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Posted 03 January 2008 - 08:52 PM

Castng = Perfect. It was just great. Each actor did his/her job wonderfully, and I have absolutely no complaints.

Storyline = No one calls the Alethiometer a "Golden Compass" (Sorry for the spelling), it's just called the Alethiometer. I was hoping to see the part where Lyra fenced with Iorek, though I'm not really disappointed, as he just sat there and pwned her. I liked the fight between Iorek and what's his face though. I think that was alright. However, though I think this was gutted from the inside out, it's not incontinuable like Eragon. They left out a lot of important characters they can't just introduce in the Eldest movie. Subtle Knife can work, and I'm looking forward to seeing Will.

This post has been edited by G-Spark: 04 January 2008 - 05:58 PM

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#70 mrxak

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Posted 04 January 2008 - 07:19 AM

Walk through for me the first 20 minutes of the Subtle Knife movie though, keeping in mind the end of The Golden Compass movie, and tell me how you think it can work. The more I consider it, the less I think it's possible.

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#71 G-Spark

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Posted 04 January 2008 - 05:59 PM

Will's at his house, he has a few flashbacks, he shoves some guy down the stairs, it switches back to Lyra, some stuff happens, they both meet in that one place... Oh wait, you're right. It's not going to work well.

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#72 mrxak

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Posted 04 January 2008 - 10:36 PM

If you've never read The Subtle Knife and don't want to know what happens in it, don't read anymore of this post.

Spoiler

[Updated with spoiler tags. Highlight to reveal the masked text. -SA]

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#73 The Real Darth Bob

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Posted 05 January 2008 - 02:11 PM

I don't think we have to worry about how the Subtle Knife will start, because with the current box office of the Golden Compass, I doubt New Line is any rush to start filming a sequel.

#74 Shlimazel

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Posted 05 January 2008 - 02:19 PM

Quote

The 1980's dune movie. That was horrible. I agree about the miniseries; although it didn't really get the look of the characters right it did good by the book.

The LOTR movies are pretty good. But you'd have to be completely unable to appreciate the books to say the movies where better than the books.

#75 mrxak

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Posted 05 January 2008 - 05:27 PM

mrxak, on Jan 4 2008, 10:36 PM, said:

[Updated with spoiler tags. Highlight to reveal the masked text. -SA]

Meh, I did warn them.

The Real Darth Bob, on Jan 5 2008, 02:11 PM, said:

I don't think we have to worry about how the Subtle Knife will start, because with the current box office of the Golden Compass, I doubt New Line is any rush to start filming a sequel.

Yeah, I think this is true.

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