Golden Compass movie

[firecat]

Golden Compass (the movie)


I enjoyed it. It was very pretty to look at. Dakota Blue Richards (who played Lyra) was excellent. Daniel Craig (who played Lord Asriel) is turning out to be the sort of actor I would like to watch reading the phone book, even if he does pretty much play the same character every time. I didn't much like Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulter. Not that there was anything seriously wrong with how she played the role, but it didn't quite work for me. (Apparently Pullman had her in mind for the role though, so maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about.) The other actors did well, but their characters were only on screen for a few minutes so they didn't get a good chance to distinguish themselves. (The characters are much more fleshed-out in the book.) I enjoyed being regularly massaged by subsonic bear roars.

But as far as the plot and its connection to the book is concerned, I think "Golden Un-Completed Jigsaw Puzzle With Many Pieces Lost in the Sofa Cushions" would be a more apt title. I can't imagine how a person who hasn't read the book would be able to follow what was going on.

Impressive knitting shows up in many of the movies I see these days. Lyra's hat has already been deconstructed and offered as a free pattern. She also had a beautiful knitted coat which you can sort of see here.
ETA: Trying another link to Lyra's coat:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2117/2091388027_2679d25b82.jpg
and here is a blog post about how to make it:
http://parallaxknitting.com/design-case-recreating-lyras-red-sweater-coat/
(There's also a craigslist ad looking to hire someone to make it.)

Comments

[futabachan.livejournal.com]

I thought that Sam Elliott and Kathy Bates were absolutely letter-perfect as Lee Scoresby and Hester, but that Ian McKellan was horribly miscast as Iorek Byrnison. I really liked Nicole Kidman as Marisa Coulter.

But what was up with shuffling the order so that Iorek's fight comes in the middle? It makes the geography make absolutely no sense, especially after showing a map that clearly puts Bolvangar on the mainland and Svalbard on... Svalbard.

And wow, does cutting the movie at the point where it ends give the film a different feel than the book. "Hooray, Roger, we rescued you! Let's go see Lord Asriel, and then everything will be great."

[pameladean]

I agree with most of this. The movie is more like an elaborate series of illustrations of the book, with occasional glitches, than it is like a coherent narrative.

I really liked the way they handled the daemons, though, especially in crowd scenes and in a few smaller scenes, like the one where Roger and Lyra met at Bolvanger and their daemons are greeting one another too.

P.

[sistercoyote.livejournal.com]

And wow, does cutting the movie at the point where it ends give the film a different feel than the book. "Hooray, Roger, we rescued you! Let's go see Lord Asriel, and then everything will be great."

The full ending evidently tested poorly with test audiences, so it got chopped off. I said this is going to make the beginning of movie II very, very dark indeed.

[okoshun.livejournal.com]

I was thinking part-way through the movie that casting Ann Coulter as Ms. Coulter would have been..appropriate.

[fattest.livejournal.com]

Oh! The hat!

[fattest.livejournal.com]

p.s. the link to the coat doesn't work

[firecat]

Tried a new link.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2117/2091388027_2679d25b82.jpg

[fattest.livejournal.com]

Here's a job for you!

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/crg/546881733.html

[firecat]

Yeah, I saw that!

Also:
http://parallaxknitting.com/design-case-recreating-lyras-red-sweater-coat/

[firecat]

*snrch*

[firecat]

They handled the daemons very well, when they bothered to put them in. In many of the crowd scenes there weren't enough daemons visible, IMO. If George Lucas had made this movie there would be a surfeit of daemon action, I'm thinking...

[firecat]

Assuming they don't plop it into the middle in a series of flashbacks or something.

[pameladean]

Oh, gosh, yes, Lucas would have gone to TOWN with the daemons.

I did find myself distracted from plot (if it can be so called) and dialogue by the attempt to attach a daemon to every person present, so I guess you're right, there weren't quite enough, or at least it didn't look as if there were.

P.

[firecat]

Ditto!

[futabachan.livejournal.com]

...and assuming that there is a second movie at all. The alethiometer isn't very encouraging about its chances.

golden compass coat

[(Anonymous)]

check out gourmetyarnco.com click on store blog," yodeling for the alps and you will see the coat reconstructed using Feza Alp Oriental yarn. Happy Knitting

Re: golden compass coat

[firecat]

Thanks!
http://bloggourmetyarn.blogspot.com/2008/01/yodeling-for-alps.html