I think I had less hate for this movie than you did, so huh, since I'm normally the frother. 1) I got the impression that the movie was set (well, set, you know what I mean?) between 1910 and 1920 type, with the entire set of technology shown, with slight exceptions, mostly in the lack of telegrams. Setting it there makes the costumes all work out. So, you know, choice thing?
2) Pretty much my only real reaction to the movie was, Lee Scoresby, how you so awesome? He filled me with an incandescent glee. For serious. 2a) I thought Serafina Pekkala was also awesome.
3) (oh how I enjoy numbered lists) I completely thought the exposition was some of the most clumsy writing ever. They'd be ticking along merrily and then it was almost as if the characters paused, turned to the camera and were like, 'G O B, Gobblers, see?' and I was like, gah, I could have written that better. Don't even get me started on the end, you and me Lyra, now that Roger's here, Roger Roger Roger. Laid on way too thick. Once would have been poignant, 20 becomes caricature.
4) Next script peeve. I understand that Bolvangar was a better climax than Svalbard and in movies they need a specific structure. I have dealt. What I have not dealt with is the clumsy reintegration of that storyline. She goes in voluntarily? Why? What can she possibly do in there that she couldn't do when the Gyptians got there? And I mean, she knows what happens to the kids. It's one thing to be brave and noble and another to be a 12 year old girl, who's terrified of being ripped apart. There's no shame in that, and I wish we could have gotten that depth for Lyra and that moment of allowed revulsion for the audience. For me, there just wasn't enough dread until the very moment of the blade, and then it was all gone again in a flurry of fighting.
5) Connected to number 4. Dread! More specifically, the tone of the movie, the mood. As you said about the beginning, weird playing tone, 'aww, kids being kids and aren't kids sweet and nice? No malice' which I think steals something from the story. The whole thing is about innocence and what innocence is how it leaves you or is taken and making the children precocious child cyphers was sad.
6)I don't know, I kind of liked it. Asriel was good, Coulter was good (she did the only not clumsy exposition, when she was talking about Dust entering the world) I really felt like she had feelings, but was still ruthless, which is what I wanted. Scoresby! Awesome. I miss Iorek's other voice, but he was good. Lyra was good, actually I rather liked her. On a future speculation note, if this level of casting stays up, I am cautiously hopeful for Will, who was the first of my type and my first love. It gets more and more creepy the older I get, how pathetically I love him. Aside from the ending of the Amber Spyglass, the line that crushed me the most was just that one line on a page, 'because he's will' and I was all, 'sing it sister! You tell 'em!'
I'm sure I had other thoughts. Maybe. Maybe they will come to me later?
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2) Pretty much my only real reaction to the movie was, Lee Scoresby, how you so awesome? He filled me with an incandescent glee. For serious. 2a) I thought Serafina Pekkala was also awesome.
3) (oh how I enjoy numbered lists) I completely thought the exposition was some of the most clumsy writing ever. They'd be ticking along merrily and then it was almost as if the characters paused, turned to the camera and were like, 'G O B, Gobblers, see?' and I was like, gah, I could have written that better. Don't even get me started on the end, you and me Lyra, now that Roger's here, Roger Roger Roger. Laid on way too thick. Once would have been poignant, 20 becomes caricature.
4) Next script peeve. I understand that Bolvangar was a better climax than Svalbard and in movies they need a specific structure. I have dealt. What I have not dealt with is the clumsy reintegration of that storyline. She goes in voluntarily? Why? What can she possibly do in there that she couldn't do when the Gyptians got there? And I mean, she knows what happens to the kids. It's one thing to be brave and noble and another to be a 12 year old girl, who's terrified of being ripped apart. There's no shame in that, and I wish we could have gotten that depth for Lyra and that moment of allowed revulsion for the audience. For me, there just wasn't enough dread until the very moment of the blade, and then it was all gone again in a flurry of fighting.
5) Connected to number 4. Dread! More specifically, the tone of the movie, the mood. As you said about the beginning, weird playing tone, 'aww, kids being kids and aren't kids sweet and nice? No malice' which I think steals something from the story. The whole thing is about innocence and what innocence is how it leaves you or is taken and making the children precocious child cyphers was sad.
6)I don't know, I kind of liked it. Asriel was good, Coulter was good (she did the only not clumsy exposition, when she was talking about Dust entering the world) I really felt like she had feelings, but was still ruthless, which is what I wanted. Scoresby! Awesome. I miss Iorek's other voice, but he was good. Lyra was good, actually I rather liked her. On a future speculation note, if this level of casting stays up, I am cautiously hopeful for Will, who was the first of my type and my first love. It gets more and more creepy the older I get, how pathetically I love him. Aside from the ending of the Amber Spyglass, the line that crushed me the most was just that one line on a page, 'because he's will' and I was all, 'sing it sister! You tell 'em!'
I'm sure I had other thoughts. Maybe. Maybe they will come to me later?