Review of The Golden Compass (2007) by Christopher B — 26 Dec 2011

Much controversy evolved from this movie from religious and fan-based sources. This dilemma did nothing less than to hinder the movie greatly. I feel that I have a very strong relationship in my religion and from that I was able to move past all of this religious uproar that was unnecessary.

This book is a very excellent beginning to an exciting trilogy. I made sure that I read the book prior to seeing the movie so that I could see what the uproar was over, understand what was going on, and enjoy a book that I knew would be ruined by the movie.

I am glad that I did read it before I saw the movie. The movie itself essentially placates to the general audience by dumbing everything down that made the book so entertaining. They euphemized all of the religious aspects of book which is the core of the trilogy: the talk of Dust and original sin and the influence of the Church.

The book is fantasy for God's sake! Of course there is going to be some extraordinary characters and plotlines but must you sacrifice story for general appeasement of the public? Rubbish! The movie, I felt, is very rushed and it was difficult to see the flow of things because they jumped around soo much.

The movie held it's own for the most part but of course switched around the order of events and changed names and took out events for... clarity, maybe? The runtime is shorter than any of the other movies based on books.

They essentially made the movie out to be this exciting children's movie. This idea resulted in the cut of the actual ending of the movie. I just can't see why we can't have a movie that is true to a book.

I understand the need to cut things for time but throw a bone to us fans once in a while and stop placating to the public. The movie is suffering so much because they did.