M: The Movie (for those who have seen it), aka Fan Reviews

[tyche]

My main problem with the film is that it removed all the moral ambiguity. I think what really makes the books stand out from trilogies like LOTR and Harry Potter is that no characters are good or evil. By removing the religious angle from the Magesterium the film turns them into cardboard cut out evil bad guys where in the books even though what they were doing was evil, their motivations were understandable. One thing that really annoyed me was Fra Pavel poisoning Lord Asriel rather than the Master. Even though it’s a fairly minor change I think it’s a pretty good example of the dumbing down the books as a whole. I mean Fra Pavel couldn’t have been any more evil if they had given him a monocle and a moustache to twirl.
A lot of people have mentioned they didn’t change that much and it’s true that heaps of the scenes were pretty much direct from the book but by changing the themes and motivations behind them it didn’t feel like HDM.

That said, the acting was excellent. I thought Mrs Coulter and Lee were both perfect and DBR carried the film well. I thought it was an alright film just not a good adaptation. But really I don’t think HDM could ever work as a film.

[daemon_light]

The beginning in Jordan College is well paced, but could also be a little longer, but I think as far as we know there aren't more longer scenes for that part, are there?

Yes... two we have seen. There's this one: 'That's odd... she acted as though she'd never seen a daemon before'...'Come on, Pan'. Also, there's the alternate "gobbling scene" with Rodger alone, and the Golden Monkey working more seductively. And also... I know they cut out the scene where a Gyptian is killed after Lyra sees it shown by the skull-hourglass symbol on the alethiometer. There was a production photo of it in one of the movie promo book.

I seem to recall Chris Weitz himself said that an extended cut would add about thirty minutes of footage, even without the ending.

My main problem with the film is that it removed all the moral ambiguity.

I thought that Mrs. Coulter was rather morally ambiguous in the movie, and she's the main villain in Golden Compass. Even our hero Lyra is morally ambiguous, which was shown thru the performace. I agree that the Magisterium was made more cartoonish in the movie, and they could've gone further with it... they wimped out sadly. Fortunately it's forgivable in this movie, but if they plan to make the next two, they will need to be more explicit. But really, the Magisterium weren't very ambiguous about their motives at all... they're consistently heartless for the most part.

One thing that really annoyed me was Fra Pavel poisoning Lord Asriel rather than the Master.

There's very little time to develop characters in a movie compared to a book... I see your point, but I really do understand why they decided to switch it for time purposes and simplicity's sake. It would've muddied up an already complicated, long exposition...

I don’t think HDM could ever work as a film.

I disagree. It's just a hell of a lot more difficult to make it work than with other books. But it can certainly be done... if they complete this film trilogy, they may yet.

[Yrael]

tyche wrote:
I don’t think HDM could ever work as a film.


I disagree. It's just a hell of a lot more difficult to make it work than with other books. But it can certainly be done... if they complete this film trilogy, they may yet.

I have to agree daemon_light, tyche, it would work as films if and only if all the key plot points (pp) and all the key characters (kc) are kept involved at the right times and with the correct roles and the appropriate order. The mistake that New line made was that they meddled with a perfect plot, so as to try and make more money from it. But they failed to realise that in trying to make the film available to a wider audience. Rearranging the pp was a major mistake as it made the film less enjoyable to fans of the book, and i found that it actually confused it for people who hadn't read the book. When i saw it with my family, they asked me why, after Iorek had control of the bears, didn't he bring his army to assault Bolvanger? Which i had no real answer to other than the fact that in the book, it isn't like that. Also by mixing up the kc, for example making Billy be the one who loses his daemon instead of Tony Makareos (forgive the spelling). This meant that Ma Costa had to come along (which in the book, one of the key points was that they weren't going to take any women on the trip). Also why did Ma Costa know straight away (without Lyra seeming to say anything) that Billy had lost his daemon?

Rant over