(no subject)

[sapote]

Alright, so I could have put together the first half of The Golden Compass better than the directors/producers did. The atmosphere was all wrong - they're not playing in golden fields, they're playing in the industrial filth of steampunk London, and they do not see themselves as children playing anyway - and the exposition was rushed and clumsy. I am sick of movies being accessible. If children in the audience are mature enough to see a talking, thinking character get his jaw ripped off his face, they are mature enough to think while engaging with the narration. Anyway, I don't think the movie succeeded - my roommate read the book three days ago for the first time, and she reported, as was my feeling, that someone who didn't know what was happening would have been confused.

It should have been about two hours longer.
They are going to fix Roger, and the daemonless children, and that PISSES ME OFF. It's not reparable. It's a movie about the destruction of innocents in the name of preserving innocence, dance with those who brought you or go home.

There were many good bits - Serafina Pekkala was fierce and beautiful, and the girl who plays Lyra is not bad and does an excellent determined face. My absolute favorite part was the friendship between Lee Scoresby and Iorek Byrnison. It was the only thing that didn't get explained but just was, and it worked beautifully.

I cannot wait to vid all of this.
Also, the clothes were way too revealing. There is nothing wrong with cinematic Victoriana! I will call Miss Coulter Senorita Sparkletits from this point forward. That is all.

It has been pointed out that I need to explicitly state here that I didn't hate the movie. I rather liked it! Yes, this is a twist ending on that, isn't it?

Comments

[sapote3.livejournal.com]

I ETA'd while peeking at your paper through gchat! I cheated! Now I've explicitly stated that I don't hate the movie. It was a good time. I did spend a lot of it cracking up, though. exposition exposition JAMES BOND AT THE NORTH POLE exposition.

The people sitting behind me were pissed.

2) I really don't know how, in my head, he looked so exactly like Mark Twain, but they got it EXACTLY RIGHT. The description in the book must have been very specific. I'm tempted to say something horribly inappropriate re: Serafina Pekkala. Like "I'll ride her cloud pine any time, baby!". Ahem.

3) You think they'll kill him? I hope they follow through. I don't dislike him, it's just, he kind of has to die. And yes, the exposition SUCKED. SO CLUMSY. Seriously, I would have done it better.

4) I think it could have stayed, because then you wouldn't have had the inappropriate spectacle of a twelve-year-old being all YAYE WE KILLED A LOT OF DUDES. Instead it could have been genuinely horrifying, even if only for the viewer and not the innocent/oblivious Lyra, and she could have taken that weight with her to Svalbard. And my to-vid list gets longer.

5) Yep. See above. And I love Lyra, but she isn't very bright, she's ignorance and innocence and intuition put together. It's when she makes the choice to leave that behind that she becomes intelligent, or at least intelligent in a way that she's aware of.

6) The casting was brilliant. Really brilliant. Are we spoiled for who will play Will? I must know!

[phnelt.livejournal.com]

I remember! I don't think they can fix the kids and I personally believe that Billy died sharpish after getting into the camp, they just didn't show it. Even the way the characters were delivering their lines smacked of desperation and the false reassurance that adult's do. It will all be all right, we'll fix it, even when they can't. And Roger is going to die. They completely set it up. 'I'm taking him what he needs!' Yes, Lyra, your little friend who is marked for death

I think James Bond on the ice did more to convince me of his James Bondyness than Casino Royale did.

2)omg so fabulous so fabulous. (see, I am reduced to incoherency and his wonderfulness. Even those clunky, 'I heard you were in a tight spot, let me tell you my life's story' lines he pulled off with panache) And, rowr, Serafina Pekkala, though I see you have claimed her by striking the first blow in the terrible come on stakes.

3)Marked For Death If they don't kill him the whole of the Amber Spyglass is gone and most of hte motivation of the Subtle Knife. Don't worry, poor sweet innocent boy shall be ripped apart and then dropped off a cliff. The real thing about the exposition is it really felt like the scriptwriter ws cutting and pasting Pullman and occasionally wrote in things like [replace later: he is the king of the ice bears] and such and then they never got edited out. This is very uncharitable of me.

4)by stayed do you mean, the order? Because I've dealt with the order of events and am now questioning motivations and such. I guess giant battle trumps polar bear getting his jaw ripped off in the tension stakes. In a weird way, I'm grateful that they pushed the literal cliffhanger to the next movie. That ending tortured me when I read it

5)I feel like Lyra's intensely bright but that's she's not hmm, organized. Like the information's there, but she doesn't question it as it comes in, or file it into proper places, it all sits there and then she gets huge omg moments when it all clicks together. Every thing she's observed (and she does more than average) just is in there, waiting. And I love that she wasn't written as an amazing precognitive genius. I have two types of character love, the kind I love and admire and sort of wish I was (even when it's real dysfunctional) and the kind I love and worship and wish I could be with as weird as I know that to be. And Lyra's in the second group. Oh Lyra, never change

6)I've been avoiding spoilers! I don't know! And I don't want to blind google. gah. Think you can convince your brother to help?