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Thursday night movies
Semantic Poetry | 6:40 AM on 12.07.2007 7 comments


I guess this is loosely game related, as all children's fantasy movies invariably provoke a slew of tie ins, so I'm going to talk briefly about The Golden Compass.

If you have read the book (Northern Lights for us Brits), do NOT see this film. Seriously, you'll be doing yourself a favour if you just wait until the DVD.

My wife and I went into the cinema expecting a fairly decent adaptation of a book that's been a personal favourite of ours for years. What we got was a rushed, choppy, bastardised mess instead. And don't get me started about the ending.

When I heard that it was being turned into a film last year, I was sceptical to say the least, particularly with an American film company handling distribution. Now, before people start jumping down my throat, I'm going to qualify this by saying that the Dark Materials sequence is not exactly...complimentary about religion, and with Harry Potter serving as a precedent for what angry religious fundamentalists could do, I was worried that the content would be...sanitised a fair amount.

Oddly, it wasn't. New Line did seem to keep a lot of the Magisterium's evilness intact, albeit less in the way of religion being evil.

***SPOILERS*

No, what ruined the film was the ending. I'm going to say it: it was a cop out. In a film that had a fair amount of violence, whoever decided that the best way to end a dark film would be a cliched 'flying into the sunset' trope needs to be shot. Into the sun. Naked.

***END SPOILERS***

After this, I really don't hold out hope for The Subtle Knife



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7 comments | showing # 1 to 7

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Professor Pew's Destructoid Blog
Please don't play the game either!
Semantic Poetry's Destructoid Blog
Oh dear, is the game that bad too?
MechaMonkey's Destructoid Blog
I'm going to see it today. I'm a little frightened, to be honest. It was like playing Assassin's Creed after all the mixed reviews.
Semantic Poetry's Destructoid Blog
@MechaMonkey

I think the best thing to do is to disavow any connection with the original book. Don't get me wrong, bits of it were fun, but...yeah, just not what I was expecting.
electristan's Destructoid Blog
i saw it on wensday and enjoyed it, but it wasn't cut very well you could tell they left out big chunks of story. but hay it had poler bears in armor so its not a total loss i guess :) I'm dreading what they are planing to do to "Enders Game" one of my favorites.
king3vbo's Destructoid Blog
Theres a game for it? O god... DO NOT WANT
Semantic Poetry's Destructoid Blog
@electristan

The armoured bears did kick a whole lot of arse.

Hopefully, Ender's Game should be ok. Hopefully.


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