The Golden Compass

Unfortunately since our passports are currently with immigration (note to self: pick it up tomorrow) we were unable to go to the army base to see the film last weekend. So we had to wait until the 19th along with the rest of Korea to see it at the regular cinema yesterday, but this did give me a few extra days to speed through the book again before seeing it on the big screen.

This was a mixed blessing - it allowed me to enjoy the magic of the book with the benefit of hindsight, recalling the characters and fully absorbing the nuances of the text without getting confused with the plot. However, it also made me recall every detail that they played out differently in the film, preventing me from enjoying the medium for what it is.

Comparisons aside, I wasn't particularly impressed by the film. Sure, there were lots of loud bangs keeping me alert, but it's always the case when they dramatise a book that your imagination gets warped by Hollywood actors and computer graphics. In view of the latter, I guess they wanted to make it all seem magical, but Lyra's clean face and the gold sparks flying around trivialised a lot of the seriousness for me. And despite the name of the film, I wasn't particularly convinced of the powers of the alethiometer, or golden compass as it's referred to, and I certainly wasn't convinced of Lyra's power to read it. I would have liked to have seen some swinging needles on the compass(maybe with some images of thought sweeping across the screen, or something equally as corny to remain in tune with the rest of the film) instead of the whooshing into the depths of its 'mind', in order to really gauge the girl's concentration on the instrument and the amazement of others at her skills.

Another problem is trying to fit in five hours or so of reading time into an 180 minute film. I wonder if I wasn't acquainted with the plot whether I would really have understood the bond between human and daemon, or understood why Asriel was hanging out in the snow. But I think my main issue with the whole thing - since despite my ramblings above I felt that on the whole they portrayed the plot well, and the concept of a talking bear was done as realistically as one could hope, and Kidman fulfilled all my expectations of Mrs Coulter - was that the girl who plays Lyra was wrong on so many levels.

For a start, the whole point is that she hasn't reached puberty. I dunno, but I'd say this girl definitely had. Secondly, she was supposed to be small for her age. Again, I felt this girl (*looks up her name...ah yes, Dakota Blue Richards) is really quite tall, though I forget how tall I was at 11. Her accent rubbed on me like a coarse cheese grater and her acting skills mirrored my own - poor, and overdone. I felt it was just a shame since there are plenty of small, genuinely common accented gifted actresses out there, but for some reason it was this one that was given her chance.

So on looking up published reviews, it would seem my views on Miss Richards are not to the consensus. But as far as the real magic and fantasy goes, I think my thoughts follow the trend that they were overridden by computer animation, which unfortunately also drown out the emotional nuances that drive the reader to turn the pages of the book. Despite a fantastic cast to get the public into the seats, The Golden Compass is a generally underwhelming adaptation of such a magnificent book.