I seem to have a thing going on with the number two (not that number two you sick creatures), I mean a tale of two comedians and now two books, two films.
Last week my rental copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix arrived. As this was the film version of the biggest Potter book, I was expecting, well, more… I have to say I was deflated and let down. There were so many good things in the book that were simply missing from the film. Somethings I could understand, but the Hospital scene, totally gone! why? You got to see Neville’s parents, and it would have been pretty good to see the Hospital. Instead you got “look everyone, Dad’s back from hospital”… err, where was the gag with him trying to get stitches? Pah. I felt there was far too much missing from the book that it seemed watered down and without direction. I want to say more, but well there’s not much point.
And the other book? The Northern Lights, for I will call it that as it’s the British title of the book, ok so the film is called The Golden Compass, but I know it as the Northern Lights. I saw the film today, I’ve read the book twice. Hmmm… and indeed Hmmm… I have doubts over the casting of some of the characters, don’t get me wrong, there were some excellent actors and actresses in it, but I think it lacked conviction on places. Ten out of Ten for the casting of Serafina Pekala, Farder Coram, Lee Skoresby, Ma Costa and Lord Faa, but the rest? hmmm.
Dakota Blue Richards hasn’t convinced me she is Lyra, merely that she’s probably a stroppy little madam. She seemed to struggle (as I did when reading), with the colloquialisms laid out in the book, words like “en’t” they just seemed to stick, and hang, just as much as if she’d said “fuck” at the most inopportune place. As for Ian McKellan, he has an imposing voice, and as Gandalf it was as if he was born to play that role. As Iorek Byrnson, he was not. My first thought was Patrick Stewart, they’re voices are quite similar.
I was interested to hear that Daniel Craig was playing Lord Asriel and
Nicole Kidman was playing Mrs Coulter. Daniel Craig had the worst line
in the film “Can’t we sort this out like gentlemen” (I actually
cringed) and Mrs Coulter just wasn’t as venomous as I’d hoped. Both
excellent actors let down by a poor script. Daniel Craig was especially let down, when you read the book, and try to imagine Lord Asriel Daniel Craig works as someone to portray him, but for some reason he just didn’t work.
I knew what was coming when I saw it for the first time on the screen, and then I thought, “oh god, please don’t let them do that every time Lyra reads the Aletheometer”… Sadly as there is no god, my prayers were not answered. The worst special effect of the film was played over and over every time the Aletheometer was consulted. The dust came swirling out of the centre of the Aletheometer and you got to see what it was telling Lyra, only it was not constructed well and you couldn’t clearly see what she was seeing. I think had they had a stronger actress, she could have explained away what it was saying, even if it was just to Pantalaemon.
Other special effects were better than hoped. For example the air-ships, using gyroscopes to power them was quite impressive. The Daemons, as a rule were quite convincing, with the exception of Mrs Coulter’s golden monkey, which just didn’t look right. There was some sloppy work in there though, the scene with Lyra riding on Iorek’s back across a frozen lake, did not flow very well, it looked, lumpy. When Mrs Coulter bent down to pick up her Daemon on the airship, it was clumsy, badly edited. I know a lot of money was spent on the effects, and they took a long time, but I felt they could have been done better in places.
Empire said that the ending had been cut, to act as a follow onto the next film, but it still came as a bit of a slap when you got to the end. I was all fired up for the ending. What they have done is imply that two of the main characters (for those of you who have not read or seen the film yet, I won’t spoil it in detail), will carry on throughout the next film, which in the book they do not, a whole new set of characters are introduced. Why would you do that? I don’t believe the director’s argument for doing so is a valid one.
Again this was another film that felt watered down, whilst the outline of the plot was in essence true to the book, it just didn’t feel as rich and full bodied as the book did. Perhaps they will polish it up further between the film and the DVD release, to give it that Lord of the Rings shine. It has to be said, even the special effects in the Harry Potter film were significantly better. It was good to see the film, to see it brought to life and alive, I enjoyed it, but not as much as I had hoped I would.
Update 6/12/07:
<a href=”http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7128985.stm”>Two “religious” reviews of the Golden Compass</a>, so following on from yesterday’s rather long post (above), today I read the linked reviews on BBC news online. The first one was a pathetic attempt at a review, focusing solely on the Magesterium as a Catholic style institution. Get over it, go harp on about how great the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is. It’s no reason to boycott what is in essence being marketed as a Christmas Kids film. The kids aren’t going to see the Religious divides in this, in less their parents indoctrinate them so much that they are forced to believe that is what the film is about. Yes I get the irony, and the sarcasm, but it’s not a film about Polar Bears.
The second review from the atheist, to a degree covered everything that I wanted to say (but probably did so poorly), he made the point I failed to, but also felt, the film was too short, it should be 2.5 hours long. I don’t like the idea, (and I think Philip Pullman agrees) that the film is being used to wage some religious war against Catholicism and Atheism. Whilst Pullman has recognised that the book is anti-religion, I think there is something beyond that in the book. The books are wonderful stories, the kind that open your mind and pull you through. As for them not being Children’s books? I think that’s incorrect, as you’ll find them in the 8 to 12 reading range in Waterstones… (I have copies, I was looking for Christmas presents).
Whilst I think the first review is a farce, I think the second one is pretty much spot on in terms of having to pull their finger out for the second and third books. Perhaps they should get Peter Jackson on the case, he seemed to have pulled off something completely amazing with the Lord of the Rings trillogy, I’m sure he didn’t spend as much as Wietz did on the Golden Compass and it was not a sloppy production in any way.
