Northern Lights

[eumelia]

I saw The Golden Compass last night with Tami.

It was quite good, very beautiful visually and the actors were good, except for the heroine, Lyra, who sucked... hopefully she'll pull a Daniel Radcliff and improve for the second and third movies.
The Soundtrack left much to be desired as well, but oh the panorama and visual effects! You could really believe a world like that existed!

By far the best thing in the entire movie was her:


Serafina Pekkala played by Eva Green. The minute she appeared on screen I was enthralled! She was so commanding, her presence, her aetherialness, her hair, her body language, everything. She played the character beautifully and was gorgeous in her own right.

She was perfect and I melted every time she appeared on screen, not to mention spoke or kicked ass!

Now I'm rereading the books, because I'd forgotten a ton of details and kept asking Tami to remind of things I knew weren't accurate, but couldn't put my finger on. I have all three books the "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Phillip Pullman, which I encourage all the sci-fi/fantasy readers on my f-lest to read and definitely recommend to any and all "regular" book readers, it's just too good a trilogy to pass.

This movie was far superior to every "Harry Potter" movie I've seen to date and the books are also much better written and have a much deeper and more subtle message than "Harry Potter" - which, despite my obsession with the series, I know it to be a very simplistic reading of our world.
"His dark Materials" is beautifully crafted and written, but alas, unlike JKR, Phillip Pullman writes controversy into the books themselves, thus making them less "marketable" than the HP series. Even with the movie and coming franchise of "The Golden Compass" and its sequels, it will never garner as much popularity as HP, simply because the story, from its inception, is not suitable for people under the age of 15, IMO.

The violence and sexuality in "His Dark Materials" is far more apparent and important than in HP, in which sexuality is seen humourously and not so much discussed as the characters grow up, and the violence is so much more casual. In "His Dark Materials", the violence and sexuality are seen as an intricate part of humanity, that if taken away for a "Greater Good", the people are no longer... "people".

Comments

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I'm so pleased to hear about the world seeming real - I loved the books, and the worlds in them were a huge part of that. And after seeing Eva Green in "Casino Royale", I had high hopes for her playing Serafina Pekkala - she really has presence.

A lot of the sexuality, though, I think was communicated quite subtly and beautifully in the books, through touches and thoughts, and is so entwined with the philosophy of the book that I don't think it needs to be terribly explicit on screen. It can't be cut out, but I think it's quite important that the different kinds of sexuality and love (Will and Lyra, Lee and Serafina, the angels, whatever it is between Mrs Coulter and Lord Asriel) are shown in the different ways that they occur and grow.

[sabotabby]

I can't wait to see this. How much of the religion stuff did they keep in?

[aesiron.livejournal.com]

You're the first person I know that's had a kind word to say about the movie but I think you're also the first one who's actually seen it. Everyone else pretty much seems to hate it on principle for taking too much leeway with the source material.

I'll probably catch it on DVD or maybe the second-run.

[stateofwonder.livejournal.com]

I just saw this tonight! Actually I thought Lyra was pretty decent, except for a few scenes which were overacted. She was suitably devious and plucky.

Without spoiling too much, I was very puzzled with the way they left the ending, and wondering how they'll start the next movie. It seemed like a bizarre editing decision.