Golden Compass is Golden ^_^ -_^ ^_^

[cmoon]

[Kevin]

[Huscheli]

[cmoon]

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200712/religious-movies

This article was linked to the first one you posted Kevin. It is very lengthy (3 pages) and informative. It does pose some pretty interesting questions--namely, even if 'His Dark Materials' is atheistic and presents a challenge to organized religion, what good is a neutered form of it?

[cmoon]

Reading the book now. Feels well written and moves at a nice pace. Interesting how negative the author is toward Lewis and Tolkien yet there are moments here you feel like 'oh, he's doing that -thing-', beings some mode of narrative or action derivative from Lewis or Tolkein. That said, I am critical of the two authors as well (can't imagine myself rereading either anytime soon.) I'm hoping it ends up being not very much like either of those books (or anything else for that matter). I guess I'll find out.

[cmoon]

Triple post woohoo!

Is the general consensus about the poor reception in the US that this is a result of religious pressure on the filmgoers not to go see it. Restating the obvious--I can't see how it is any worse than the potter films / narnia or even (heaven forbid) LOTR, infact the film had moments that stood out on its own right away from those other films. I can't really see why it tanked as hard as it did short of 1) the moral majority in the US being offended as usual 2) the hardcore book fans that were upset the last two chapters weren't present.

Any take on this?

[Kevin]

The whole demon thing. Too many ultra christians can't get over the fact that Demon did not used to mean "servants of satan" until after the third or fourth council of nicea. That's why christians here have done everything in their power to edit out Solomon's ring of a thousand demons and his use of magic.

Also, even the baptists here tend to follow the pope and claim he's a good man, so there's very little difference in my mind between many christians and die hard catholics.

[cmoon]

Well Pullman at least makes the distinction that they are Daemons, which means personal spirit. Ironically while the intro of the film says these are like souls outside one's body; the book (which I haven't finished yet) does no such thing and in a world with ghosts and spirits leaves you to think quite literally that this is a world where every person has their own personal magic companion.

****

Along another tangent, I've been rethinking the reaction to this film and can imagine why it is being received in a very different way than the book. The book(s) is/are clearly YA (young adult) or if you prefer, aimed at the adolescent reader (though enjoyable by us adults too!), and in that sense it serves a very important role of presenting a challenging, even confrontational view to an age group that is by its very definition, confrontational.

But the film is not a YA film. It is a family film which means baby sitting to Americans. This may be the problem along with a general trend reported that people find the film confusing (an interesting twist given the other accusation that it's just an amalgam of other films.)

Erg...anyway, I feel there is definitely a place for the book, and in another time (especially the 70's) the film too would have found a place; but ironically the new millennium often feels much more defensive and afraid of challenging anyone's beliefs or even their comfort-zone.

[Kevin]

I think the film is being received rather well, the people who whine and moan are giving a lot of free press to the movie!

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id ... ompass.htm

25 million opening weekend is nothing to scoff at.

Production budget was 180 million, total gross they've made back is nearing 100,000 million.

I think this movie is gonna make back what it spent.

This bad press seems to be being generated by only a small group of small minded people. And if a kid wants to see the movie, their parents are gonna take them to that movie. I am also glad that the changes between book and movie are relatively minor, and in some cases necessarry (some things just will not reach an audience without extended play times, especially if the audience being targeted are kids), but thankfully the author fully endorsed the changes.

[cmoon]

While I'd love to have 25 million myself, I don't think new line was aiming at breaking even. My impression is this is a rather dismal failure and if you look at what other films are making ('I am legend' for instance that got neutral to negative reviews overall), you might change your mind on it.

TGC was meant to be a block buster, but it seems from what I've seen here in the US anyway that it is being considered a commercial flop, which is unfortunate.

[Kevin]

[Huscheli]

[cmoon]

[Kevin]

[cmoon]