Friday, December 07, 2007

Eat My Dust

"It's an accelerometer, a speed measurer. It tells you how fast things go."

Well that's not really right. But that's what Golden Compass really made us think of. Magus was right when he said that the show's really a sort of fast-forwarded 2 hour trailer.

Liddis.

Lord Of The Rings, semacam travelling in a blimp - pacing not so fast/slow, very scenic, can take in everything.

The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe, like in a cruise ship - also take your time, enjoy the sights and sounds that is Narnia.

Stardust, in an airplane - it's fast but you don't feel it going fast. Like watching clouds go by slowly, each scene in Stardust you can take in and understand what's going on in the film without feeling hurried, and yet the pacing of the show is good that nothing was draggy.

Golden Compass, that was like sitting in an F1 car for one lap. Everything speed pass you, you see lines only, can see a bit when slowing down for corners. There is no sense of time too, but that's because everything is zipping by so fast you keep thinking you're still in the 1st second.

And the worst bit? All the others can watch movie first then read the books. This is one show where you would best do to read the book before watching it. Because hell a lot of things were lost in the movie, and some of these were things actually strengthen the storyline. It was rather weird to see Lyra, just meeting someone for the first time, suddenly becomes close best friends two scenes later. Sense of time is so distorted.

So here's one or two things general things about daemons and such. So you'll be told that in Lyra's world, every human has a daemon which is part of that human. Daemons can change shape while the human is still young, but will stop changing and maintain a certain animal shape once the human 'grows up'. Humans and daemons have some connection - hurting one will hurt the other. Daemons can freely touch other daemons, but it's considered a gross breach of etiquette to touch someone else's daemon (worse than molest? dunno). If one dies, so will the other.

The importance of the human-daemon connection which was built up in the book got lost in the movie. So the shock of seeing a human without a daemon, or about intercision (cutting off the connection between human and daemon) wasn't as horrific as it was in the book.

Well enough about that then. Must say that we did have a premonition at the start of the show - as the show started, we quoted, "The world is changed," (no, we didn't do the "I amar prestar aen..." bits) and next thing you know Saruman and Gandalf were in the film, all thanks to New Line Cinema. No reminders of Casino Royale or The Invasion at least.

The movie eyecandy is absolutely stunning at the least. Anbaric power is shown to be some sort of atom-driven power, the structures are grand, the clothes are better than how we actually pictured them when we read the book (we admit to stereotyping based on most fantasy novels, so the priests of the Magisterium wore monk's robes of sorts instead of snazzy suits). The details on Daniel Craig's coat and vest at the start of the movie. When it came to appearances, they managed to pull off the 'almost the same, yet different' look very well.

Asides from that, this show lost to Stardust and Enchanted. We'll hope they pull their socks up for The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

8 comments:

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Sam said...

Even though I didn't read the books, I do feel that it's very odd for a lot of scenes in the movie to feel quite fast-forwarded. The part with Iorek suddenly liking Lyra and stuff, it's just much too unreal - distorted as you said it.

I think I'll probably get the books and read them for myself because a lot of the terms and things happening in the movie were left quite unexplained - which doesn't help when I have to actually ask the readers of the book what it actually means.

P/S: With Coulter and Asriel seemingly being the parents (as the movie puts it) - I can't help seeing the Invasion all over again. :P

Medie007 said...

it is THAT bad?! owwww... I was still hoping to catch that with me familie... hmph... maybe just go watch enchanted with them then...

MrBunnyBan said...

I think that in spite of leaving out so much, the movie turned out quite good. But that's mostly to the credit of the book. I can't hope that it'll pick up for the Subtle KNife and the Amber Spyglass which weren't nearly as good as the first book.

David The Man said...

Now, now, now, I have got to watch those movies to verify if your reviews of those movies are accurate or not. Gotta see them with my very own eyes. Now, I seriously need a movie partner to go with. Who wanta to accompany me to the movies? Any takers?

Medie007 said...

well hey! just came back and really, it's such a nice movie lei... or maybe, i didn't read the book, but i still think it's ok mar... pretty darn good even! tho a bit hanging at the ending lar...

nyway, so LURV the witchesssss!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D

William said...

When Serafina Pekkala was telling Lyra about Bolvangar, it kinda reminded me of Galadriel and the Elfin tongue. :P

Janvier said...

Sam: You must read the books!

Ah-Bong: Good for you if you manage to enjoy the movie! :D

Ban: There certainly was a lot more happening in Northern Lights/Golden Compass compared to the other books, but that would also mean that they won't have to rush from scene to scene then.

David The Man: To each their own review. This is only our opinion, not the final verdict.

William: Hahaha! There is a certain kind of grace there. We expected her to go, "I'm the Bond girl."