{"id":11924,"date":"2007-12-30T17:31:28","date_gmt":"2007-12-31T00:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/12\/30\/movie-review-the-golden-compass.html"},"modified":"2007-12-30T17:31:28","modified_gmt":"2007-12-31T00:31:28","slug":"movie_review_the_golden_c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/12\/30\/movie_review_the_golden_c.html","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review: The Golden Compass<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all went out to the movies this afternoon.  Katherine and Alex (and Ginger) saw Alvin & the Chipmunks<\/em>.  Nick and Mary and Margie and I saw The Golden Compass<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n

The Golden Compass<\/a><\/em> (2007)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
Overall<\/strong><\/td>\n <\/td>\n Story<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Production<\/td>\n <\/td>\n Acting<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Story<\/strong>: I’ve not read (yet) the novels that the movie is based on (as a first installment).  It is, as presented, solid if not terribly complex.  On the one hand, you have the Magisterium, the free-will-consuming authoritarian state (with religious overtones supposedly much clearer in the books) that rules a world of high-tech magic.  On the other hand, you have scholars, social outcasts, and various other folks who are helping out a little girl who prophecy (of course) foretells will settle the conflict once and for all.  Oh, and there’s a ton of cool CG critters, the outward manifestations of individuals’ souls, called daemons, <\/em>who add to the number of characters to track, as well as the subject of much plot machination. <\/p>\n

As the first installment in a series, the challenge is to tell a relatively self-contained tale while still maintaining interest for the next.  The biggest flaw  (as elucidated by Nick) is that the movie could have been about twice as long,  In fact, it did feel like we got the highlights — some key dialog, some critical scenes, enough to basically hold together, but still feeling like the “synopsis” version.  That the writers still managed to make us care about the characters, and slip a bit of development in and amongst the set pieces and plot-driven deus ex machina,<\/em> is all to their credit.<\/p>\n

Acting<\/strong>:  There’s some very<\/em> good talent in this movie — some of it voice-only, others actually on screen.  Nobody’s on enough (even the protagonist Lyra) to attain too much depth, but what’s up there is quite good.<\/p>\n

Production<\/strong>:  Simply too gorgeous.  The world is lovingly crafted; the daemons, ice bears, and other CG critters are well put together, and the sets and settings are beautiful.  Good music, fine costuming, etc.  Great eye (and ear) candy.<\/p>\n

Overall<\/strong>:  The movie has been in the news largely because of some Christian conservatives who object to the books (they promote free-thinking against religious authoritarians and dogmatists, don’t you know?).  For some folks (like me), that’s backfired, since it’s made me want to see the movie (and read the books) much more than I would have likely otherwise. <\/p>\n

As far as how much of that leaks into the movie, it’s tolerable.  It’s clearly framed as “free will” vs. “the ones in authority know best,” always a popular theme (these days especially), and there’s a lot of dialog to that end — sometimes just a scosh heavy-handed.  On the other hand, it’s a legitimate theme (at least as much so as one finds in LotR, the best comparison I can think of at the moment), and it’s handled intelligently, if a bit simplistically (which I understand is more a function of it being a short movie than a longer book).<\/p>\n

The movie is rated PG-13, which made it suitable for Nick at 11 (with parental consent), but there were enough disturbing bits and fantasy violence that I wouldn’t soon recommend it for Kitten (who thought Alvin<\/em> was great).<\/p>\n

I certainly recommend seeing the movie before it vanishes into the aether (or comes out on DVD) — which is likely to happen soon, as it was something of a failure domestically (it’s done far better in foreign markets<\/a>)  It’s not clear if the aggregate box office will be enough to generate a second installment of the trilogy, sadly — but it was enough to make me want to pick up the books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We all went out to the movies this afternoon.  Katherine and Alex (and Ginger) saw Alvin & the Chipmunks.  Nick and Mary and Margie and I saw The Golden Compass….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-movies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12005,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/12\/14\/flop.html","url_meta":{"origin":11924,"position":0},"title":"Flop?","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 14-Dec-07 7:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Les points out the inevitable crowing over The Golden Compass opening\u00a0not as well as expected\u00a0-- crowing, in this case, by the Catholic League, which had organized a boycott over the...","rel":"","context":"In "Disney\/Pixar"","block_context":{"text":"Disney\/Pixar","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/disney"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11917,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/01\/01\/d%c3%a6mon.html","url_meta":{"origin":11924,"position":1},"title":"D\u00e6mon","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-Jan-08 10:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"What is your (Golden Compass-style) d\u00e6mon? 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