Golden Compass again

Since the subject seems to attract a lot of visitors, let me put it to rest: yes, I saw Golden Compass, three times so far. Was it that good? Well, no. I felt obligated to support the movie, and to drag my friends, roommates and lovers to see it.

But was it good? Well, yes, but it wasn't great. Every detail of it was quite awesome: beautiful plot, great acting, awe-inspiring CGI and miscellaneous scenery, kick-ass action scenes, but the whole was less than a sum of its parts. Why? Was it director's fault? I don't know: the whole thing just didn't seem to gel. Perhaps it is only logical: transferring a novel of such complexity and detail to screen is doomed to some failure, and that part was obvious: the movie jumped from scene to scene without any seeming connection, especially to those that haven't read the books. The overall effect was reminiscent of Lynch's Dune; if you were familiar with the books, you couldn't help but notice a mass of detail left out, apparently haphazardly cut to bring the whole thing down to a manageable size; if you haven't, the thing looked disjointed, episodic (not necessarily in a good sense), illogical. Characters appeared and were gone without explanation. Massively important details were left dangling. Subplots flared up and fizzled out, unresolved. And violence was toned down to an "acceptable" Hollywood PG13 level.

Still, I recommend seeing it, if only for the visual pleasure and a chance to stick it to fundies.