Golden Compass
Dec. 7th, 2007 11:27 pmThere was a Transformers review on BoingBoing once where the reviewer proclaimed himself "gay for robots."
Well, folks, I am gay for polar bears.*
And this movie has polar bears. Armor-wearing, whiskey-quaffing, smack-talking polar bears. And that is all I need.
It's visually gorgeous, even if Daniel Craig isn't in it long enough.
It's also very rushed, and while I have not read the book, I'm told it's rather dumbed-down. There is one horrid transition--or lack thereof--toward the end. If this transition happened in a book, it would be the equivalent of "I have no clue how they get out of this, so let's just stick in a scene break and call it a miracle." I guess in film it's "we're out of time, so just stick in a scene break and hope they've read the book."
And spunky children of prophecy... Please, just stop. No more.
I'm mildly curious about the books, but I don't think I'm going to get on with them very well. I don't like or agree with organized religion. I HATE preachy fiction. And preachy fiction marketed to children is ten times worse. I don't care what you're selling, if you can't make the story more important than the message, write a fucking textbook or a Chick track.
Or add more polar bears.
* Okay, one might have to actually straight for that to work, and even then it's a wobbly metaphor, but just pretend it makes sense.
Well, folks, I am gay for polar bears.*
And this movie has polar bears. Armor-wearing, whiskey-quaffing, smack-talking polar bears. And that is all I need.
It's visually gorgeous, even if Daniel Craig isn't in it long enough.
It's also very rushed, and while I have not read the book, I'm told it's rather dumbed-down. There is one horrid transition--or lack thereof--toward the end. If this transition happened in a book, it would be the equivalent of "I have no clue how they get out of this, so let's just stick in a scene break and call it a miracle." I guess in film it's "we're out of time, so just stick in a scene break and hope they've read the book."
And spunky children of prophecy... Please, just stop. No more.
I'm mildly curious about the books, but I don't think I'm going to get on with them very well. I don't like or agree with organized religion. I HATE preachy fiction. And preachy fiction marketed to children is ten times worse. I don't care what you're selling, if you can't make the story more important than the message, write a fucking textbook or a Chick track.
Or add more polar bears.
* Okay, one might have to actually straight for that to work, and even then it's a wobbly metaphor, but just pretend it makes sense.