Gold Compass - New Movie

[Thes Hunter]

I just stumbled across this movie and it looks pretty good.

The Golden Compass (http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/)


It's a real all star cast. Anyone else anticipating Dec. 7th when it opens?

[Sundog]

I just stumbled across this movie and it looks pretty good.

The Golden Compass (http://www.goldencompassmovie.com/)


It's a real all star cast. Anyone else anticipating Dec. 7th when it opens?

Saw the trailer yesterday when I saw Stardust. Looks good, apparently it's based on some books I'd never heard of before.

[Illiterate Scribe]

Not heard of Philip Pullman? Where have you been living?

[TheRiov]

Without spoiling too much: the books are excellent and touching (despite being marketed for children they're perhaps even a little darker than Harry Potter (the first book has fairly graphic descriptions of a characters jaw being torn off for example, and there is a lot of harm that is done to children.)

HOWEVER: the books are bordering on sacreligous. (not that it bothers me, but some would be quite offended)

The first of the series doesnt really touch on the issues (though they're hinted at) the remaining two get more into multi-universe travel, quantum physics, magic, the nature of the soul and the nature of God.



several main characters make war upon-- and win against- God. (actually it implys that God is either dead or absent and all this time an angel has been playing God. They kill the angel, and leave humanity & the multiverse to its own devices free of divine intervention.

[Tirian]

Golly, yes. The movie gives every indication of being excellent, but you can go ahead and read the books now. My understanding is that The Golden Compass is called Northern Lights outside North America. And everywhere the series continues with The Subtle Knife and concludes with The Amber Spyglass.

I am one of those people who think that Phillip Pullman's anti-Narnia agenda eventually interferes with his ability to tell a story, but the first two books in the trilogy are outstanding.

[PlatinumJester]

I'm pissed off they changed the name. The Golden Compass sounds lame compared to Northern Lights.

[BlackStaticWolf]

I'm pissed off they changed the name. The Golden Compass sounds lame compared to Northern Lights.

It actually makes more sense in light of the fact that the other books are named after important objects in the series.

Still kind of a pointless renaming though.

[PlatinumJester]

It actually makes more sense in light of the fact that the other books are named after important objects in the series.

Still kind of a pointless renaming though.

Yeah but it sounds crapper.

[Hoggy]

Loved the books. Waiting for it so I can grumble about how this, that and t'other was not done right. :smalltongue:

[thorgrim29]

Now that does sound VERY cool.

[LordVader]

Golly, yes. The movie gives every indication of being excellent, but you can go ahead and read the books now. My understanding is that The Golden Compass is called Northern Lights outside North America. And everywhere the series continues with The Subtle Knife and concludes with The Amber Spyglass.

I am one of those people who think that Phillip Pullman's anti-Narnia agenda eventually interferes with his ability to tell a story, but the first two books in the trilogy are outstanding.

First one was good, didn't read the second one, third one made me go "Alright, cool battles, good story, but the constant ZOMG H3AV3N IZ T3H SUXXORZ rant is a bit annoying."

[DraPrime]

First one was good, didn't read the second one, third one made me go "Alright, cool battles, good story, but the constant ZOMG H3AV3N IZ T3H SUXXORZ rant is a bit annoying."

I have to agree. The "god and the angels suck" thing just came out of nowhere.

[thubby]

this seems like one of those things better left to paper

[adanedhel9]

I knew of the series, but it wasn't until I saw the trailer several months ago that I really became interested in reading it. I mostly enjoyed it, and I look forward to the film version... but I worry about the transition to the silver screen. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something in the various previews and trailers makes me think that it'll be more inpired by than based on.

[LordVader]

I have to agree. The "god and the angels suck" thing just came out of nowhere.

Still, the first one was a good book. Is the second one worth reading?

[....]

Eh.

They were okay.

Sort of gallumphing. And while I personally enjoy the whole kill god and live by your own free-will, I realize a lot of people don't like it and I believe Mr. Pullman was really just trying to make a story for kids to counteract stuff like Narnia.

[LordVader]

I don't mind novels saying that god doesn't exist and you need to live by your own free will, but the whole "Slaughter God, yay!" thing was kind of over the top. If you published that today, you'd probably get run out of business for discriminating against Jews/Muslims/Christians.:smalltongue:

[13_CBS]

Eva Green.

Christopher Lee.

Nicole Kidman.

Others.

OMFG

I...I promised not to cry...:smallfrown:

Edit: Ooh! Daniel Craig! And Ian McKellan! If they had somehow involved Liam Neeson, I probably would have soiled myself.

[Tirian]

I don't mind novels saying that god doesn't exist and you need to live by your own free will, but the whole "Slaughter God, yay!" thing was kind of over the top. If you published that today, you'd probably get run out of business for discriminating against Jews/Muslims/Christians.:smalltongue:

Er, it was pretty much published today. 2000, at any rate. I suspect it slid under the radar because of some other YA fantasy work.

I enjoyed the second book quite a bit. It follows all of the characters from the first book while introducing probably the same number of new characters. Pretty much the same habit of dumping dense packets of plot at one sitting, but in a fun way instead of a "Duhhhr, I'm God and I like to eat my own poo" kind of way.

And, 13_CBS, don't ever become a movie reviewer. Ewww.

[Falconer]

I'm not so sure about this...to me it seems more like it's just atheism wrapped up as a children's story, to make it appeal more to children.

In my opinion it's just too blatantly an 'anti-Narnia' for me to take it as serious literature.

[13_CBS]

And, 13_CBS, don't ever become a movie reviewer. Ewww.

I guess that makes two of us.

[Icewalker]

HOWEVER: the books are bordering on sacreligous. (not that it bothers me, but some would be quite offended)

Bordering on sacreligious?
They...kill god! And the major villain organization is the church...and not just any church, it's pretty clear that its the Catholic church. I am quite curious about how the movie will be reacted too :smalltongue:

I found the books to be excellent. Read them recently, the movie looks pretty well done.

[Umbral_Arcanist]

Bordering on sacreligious?
They...kill god! And the major villain organization is the church...and not just any church, it's pretty clear that its the Catholic church. I am quite curious about how the movie will be reacted too :smalltongue:

I found the books to be excellent. Read them recently, the movie looks pretty well done.

I know that they claim to have toned down the anti-catholic part and made it more anti-organized religion (which is, i think, what Pullman had been going for anyway)

I found the books deteriorated in quality, but i recently re-read the subtle knife and enjoyed it alot more than i had...

The religious thing didn't really catch me off guard as the church's evil inqusition like branch was always the bad guy...

[....]

I'm not so sure about this...to me it seems more like it's just atheism wrapped up as a children's story, to make it appeal more to children.

Its no worse than Narnia was just the Bible in disguise with cute lions instead of bleeding people.

And there's waaaaaay to much supernatural stuff going on for it to simply be athesim in a box. if that were the case, it'd turn out god was just some really smart old man messing around with peopl via a big computer or something.

[Krrth]

Meh. I enjoyed the first two books, but like others have said, the third book....was kinda silly. It turned me off the whole thing. I son't know, it just kinda sucked for me, anyways. As for the movie....we'll have to see.

[WalkingTarget]

I don't mind novels saying that god doesn't exist and you need to live by your own free will, but the whole "Slaughter God, yay!" thing was kind of over the top. If you published that today, you'd probably get run out of business for discriminating against Jews/Muslims/Christians.:smalltongue:

I enjoyed the books. I will say that there is a shift in tone between the first book and the other two. The idea that God isn't really the great omni-benevolent being the Abrahamic religions say isn't actually a new one. Look up Demiurge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demiurge) and Gnosticism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnostic). Note also that the "bad" religious people who get screen time are all from another universe, which is a nice loophole.

[Closet_Skeleton]

In my opinion it's just too blatantly an 'anti-Narnia' for me to take it as serious literature.

What?!!

Since when has a political agenda and bitter references to other works stopped ANYTHING from being literature.

Okay, that's enough over reaction for today.

[Hoggy]

Reading this thread, the resemblance between this series of books and many RPGs is rather similar.

[Falconer]

What?!!

Since when has a political agenda and bitter references to other works stopped ANYTHING from being literature.

Okay, that's enough over reaction for today.

That's merely my opinion. I'm not trying to force it on you.

[Jorkens]

I enjoyed the books. I will say that there is a shift in tone between the first book and the other two. The idea that God isn't really the great omni-benevolent being the Abrahamic religions say isn't actually a new one. Look up Demiurge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demiurge) and Gnosticism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnostic).
Hmmm. I didn't think that the final book came out of nowhere particularly, it's all flows pretty obviously from the beginning. Although I think I see what you mean about a shift in tone - from the personal story to the epic battle.

Also, I get kind of annoyed by the "ZOMG it says God is BAD so I HATE IT" attitude. I think the actual message of the books (in terms of the values they push rather than the world they create) is one of fairly liberal humanism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism) rather than radical atheism. I think one should be able to seperate the fantastic world (which as WalkingTarget points out, isn't a particularly new one in many ways) that he's using to make the point from the point itself. Conversely, as a fairly confirmed atheist, I'm able to read Paradise Lost and not get annoyed by the "theist propoganda," and I suspect a lot of people here have read Lord of the Rings without feeling any compulsion to accept Eru Illuvatar as the creator...

It's vaguely analogous to China Mieville on the subject of politics in his novels:
"I’m not a leftist trying to smuggle in my evil message by the nefarious means of fantasy novels. I’m a science fiction and fantasy geek. I love this stuff. And when I write my novels, I’m not writing them to make political points. I’m writing them because I passionately love monsters and the weird and horror stories and strange situations and surrealism, and what I want to do is communicate that. But, because I come at this with a political perspective, the world that I’m creating is embedded with many of the concerns that I have... I’m trying to say I’ve invented this world that I think is really cool and I have these really big stories to tell in it and one of the ways that I find to make that interesting is to think about it politically. If you want to do that too, that’s fantastic. But if not, isn’t this a cool monster?"

[....]

The only cool monster in His Dark Materials is the Armored Bear.

[Jorkens]

Quoting myself. Probably a sign of delusions of granduer. Or not thinking things through before I post.

I think the actual message of the books (in terms of the values they push rather than the world they create) is one of fairly liberal humanism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism) rather than radical atheism.
And fwiw, I think Pullman's objection to the Narnia books is along the same lines - it's not so much that they create a world in which something analogous to Christianity is true, it's that they suggest that the correct response to this is to go out and smite enemies of the faith (particularly ones with scimitars and turbans), avoid nylons and invitations and so on. Conversely, the message that he's pushing for is less "GOD IS EVIL!!!!!!" than (oversimplifying heavily) "think for yourself and don't be afraid to grow up and experience life when the time comes."

[Jorkens]

The only cool monster in His Dark Materials is the Armored Bear.
Yeah, but it is a polar bear with armour.

A polar bear.

With armour.

I'm going to go and watch the films just for that tbh, humanist message be damned.

[Vaynor]

I can't wait, it looks awesome, I loved the books.

[JadedDM]

They're removing all references of religion from the movie anyway. They figured the American movie-going public would go nuts, otherwise. Anyone here old enough to remember the protesters for the movie Dogma?

[Hell Puppi]

how...are they going...to do the rest of the series then....IF THEY TOOK THE RELIGIOUS THEME OUT OF IT?!?!

[Prustan]

Saw the trailer a month or so ago, and am really looking forward to it. Then got rather annoyed with the movie theatre for showing a trailer in August/September for a movie that's showing on Boxing Day.

As for the books, I've read all three. Northern Lights was great (shouldn't have renamed it :smallfurious: ), Subtle Knife was ok and while Amber Spyglass was still well written, the anti-religious/anti-God theme was really getting annoying. And then you didn't get a happy ending.

[Umbral_Arcanist]

how...are they going...to do the rest of the series then....IF THEY TOOK THE RELIGIOUS THEME OUT OF IT?!?!

they didn't take them out, instead of it being an-alternate universe catholic church that is evil is is some unnamed (or at least not Catholic or other real sect) church, and i suspect that they plan to make it quite clear that the message is against organized religion as a whole and not christianity in particular. The fact that the article i read seemed focused on how they are trying to blunten the anti-catholic bit means that it most likely will be offensive to some people so they are pre-empting complaints.

[Lyesmith]

i will definitley see this!
I loved Northern Lights, read it to death when i first got it. not finished the trilogy yet (I got into pratchett and he sorta took over)

Werent some of the anti-dogma protests really lame, though?
There was soemthing on Youtube about it, but i've places to be, so ta-ra.

[Hyrael]

Bordering on sacreligious?
They...kill god! And the major villain organization is the church...and not just any church, it's pretty clear that its the Catholic church. I am quite curious about how the movie will be reacted too :smalltongue:

I found the books to be excellent. Read them recently, the movie looks pretty well done.

Be fair- it's an alternate version from an alternate universe. But, since it sounds like the history of that world is fairly consistent with ours, and it's fairly christian, I think it can be reasonably concluded that, while Jesus did exist, and start the church, his importaince faded as time wore on (just as Mary and other saints gained prominence, prominence can be lost over time as well).

I liked the first book, the second and third books less, though they all had very good SECTIONS. I'm worried that they're going to cut out the anti-religious thing and up the steampunkery, which will kind of kill the whole point of the damn book. Narnia DID bug me as a kid, and I thought the movie was a bit lame. (well done, but the source material set an upward limit that was rather low).

[SurlySeraph]

The only cool monster in His Dark Materials is the Armored Bear.

And the Cliff Ghasts. Don't forget the Cliff Ghasts.

Though I'm religious, I hope they leave the anti-religious subtext in. Adults can think about the subtext, kids can just enjoy the story. It's probably not going to make kids subliminally hate religion, and the plot won't be as interesting if they cut that part out. It looks like it could make a pretty good movie, and I'm eager to see how it turns out.

[psycojester]

And the Daemons were pretty cool.