The Golden Compass Reviews

Empty twine of unsubstantiated pathos in skirling garment, as an alibi. Pity..

The Northern Lights books are brilliant, my favorite books. They should have never made a movie out of it, the story is way to complicated. So that movie is nothing but some stupid fairytale with pretty pictures, it just doesn't show what the story is about. It was boring and disappointing.

I am a fan of the book, but will admit that it is not brilliant writing. But there is something in the book that makes it gripping and intelligent. But it is very complicated. And there was no way that they could stay completely true to the book. But the screen adaptation has lost that "something" completely. The special effects are marvelous, and costuming and stylization was pretty much how I imagined it. They changed the "Church" to the "Magasterium" and never talk about Original Sin, like in the book, but I wasn't surprised by that (being a bit controversial). But I think the thing that bothered me the most is the way they dumbed it down and made it too obvious. Part of the magic of the book is figuring out things, and that never happens here. And maybe the fatal flaw of the movie was there inability to impress on the viewer how important each person's daemon was to them, how sacred that it, how much a part of the person this creature is. My husband (never read the book) thought this may have been one of the worst movies he ever saw. I just know that it broke my heart.