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This movie could have gone horribly wrong. Okay, it's not perfect - it's a movie rare in the extreme that comes close to perfect - and it does take two parts of the book and switch them around (the Bolvangar and Svalbard sequences), but no serious liberties are taken, like in the last couple of Potter movies. The "anti-religious" message (anti-fundamentalist, more like) from the book takes something of a back seat, but there can be little doubt that the Magisterium is Christian-related, and it was never the case that the "message" saturated every page of the book, as some are trying to suggest.
The casting is pretty much spot-on, although maybe Iorek Byrnison didn't need Ian McKellern's voice (he still does a great job, mind) - it does give Sir Ian another classic character for his CV, however. Pity Mrs Coulter is supposed to have dark hair, but Nicole Kidman handles the role just fine.
The effects serve the story well, although trying to impose human expressions onto animals (when Pan is a cat, for example) doesn't seem to work completely. The technology is generally believeable, and there is a distinct indication of the "Victorian era never died, no World Wars" style I'd envisaged for the story.
What was missing... The first five minutes, courtesy of the cinema (for me at least) - slow refreshment queue...
- Tony Makarios, the boy - in the book - who Lyra finds without a daemon, and who dies as a result. The film replaces him with the Costa boy, and his fate is never elaborated on after his return to his mother. There's also a good scenelet following the boy's death that shows that Lyra isn't as cold as some might think.
- The Witches' consulate - rendered obselete by the meeting between Lyra and Serafina Pekkala on the Gyptian ship.
- Witches flying on cloud-pine branches - what, too Potter?
- The End Of The Book - moved to Movie 2 to make up for the relative lack of action in The Subtle Knife...?
The low-down... This is a film that can take big chunks of story, flip them round, and get away with it. True, the movie isn't perfect, but as I said earlier, it's a good deal better in translating book to screen than the last two Potters. It'll be interesting to see how the other movies go - people are sure to bitch about the SFX content of Amber Spyglass... but what do you expect??? It's not as though they can just go and hire a bunch of angels as extras! Score: 8 out of 10
Tomorrow... The Fucking System request my presence - but a meeting I'd been dreading has been cancelled, and will most likely not be a factor until the New Year (I hope).
The casting is pretty much spot-on, although maybe Iorek Byrnison didn't need Ian McKellern's voice (he still does a great job, mind) - it does give Sir Ian another classic character for his CV, however. Pity Mrs Coulter is supposed to have dark hair, but Nicole Kidman handles the role just fine.
The effects serve the story well, although trying to impose human expressions onto animals (when Pan is a cat, for example) doesn't seem to work completely. The technology is generally believeable, and there is a distinct indication of the "Victorian era never died, no World Wars" style I'd envisaged for the story.
What was missing... The first five minutes, courtesy of the cinema (for me at least) - slow refreshment queue...
- Tony Makarios, the boy - in the book - who Lyra finds without a daemon, and who dies as a result. The film replaces him with the Costa boy, and his fate is never elaborated on after his return to his mother. There's also a good scenelet following the boy's death that shows that Lyra isn't as cold as some might think.
- The Witches' consulate - rendered obselete by the meeting between Lyra and Serafina Pekkala on the Gyptian ship.
- Witches flying on cloud-pine branches - what, too Potter?
- The End Of The Book - moved to Movie 2 to make up for the relative lack of action in The Subtle Knife...?
The low-down... This is a film that can take big chunks of story, flip them round, and get away with it. True, the movie isn't perfect, but as I said earlier, it's a good deal better in translating book to screen than the last two Potters. It'll be interesting to see how the other movies go - people are sure to bitch about the SFX content of Amber Spyglass... but what do you expect??? It's not as though they can just go and hire a bunch of angels as extras! Score: 8 out of 10
Tomorrow... The Fucking System request my presence - but a meeting I'd been dreading has been cancelled, and will most likely not be a factor until the New Year (I hope).
