The Golden Compass

[ASR]

I just got back from the movie and it was... AMAZING. Entirely true to the book, no disappointments in any way, shape or form. It was simply amazing. Great acting, special effects, and it was... well made. A few small things were changed, but nothing horrible.

It ended a bit before the actual ending of the book but at least they chose a good spot. I went with someone who'd never read the books and even she thought the movie was great. She just stole the books from me. Yay?

[Dr.]

u get lucky 2nite?

[ASR]

...no, Doctor. No. Bad Doctor.

[Yubi Shines]

Awesome. I'm planning on watching it next Wednesday. Weekday, fewer people, ftw.

I tried to make my mother read the book a while back, but she didn't want to -- now with the movie she's asking to borrow it. Which is harder than it sounds, since all my books are still in moving boxes I haven't unpacked yet, and most are labelled things like "V's Room: Misc Book #5", which isn't helpful.

[Dr.]

...no, Doctor. No. Bad Doctor.

*crawls into corner and pouts*

[ASR]

I must say that the special effects were... utterly amazing. Anyone who's read the book will understand how REAL it makes the world feel. The movie accomplishes it just as well.

[Speed Racer]

The movie was "meh". It was visually stunning, but the first hour was boring and the only character that I cared about was Sam Elliot's. And Daniel Craig, one of the reasons why I wanted to see it? Yeah, he's in there for ten minutes, tops.

[Mikero]

Heard it was pretty good. Have plans to go see in a week or two.

[ASR]

Sam's character, Lee Scoresby, is one of my favorites from the books. He did a great job.

[Dr.]

I loved the book, yet thought the movie was soso.

[Orange Devil]

My Girlfriend is obsessed with the book and she was super pumped for the movie. She said it was really disappointing and they made a lot of unnesecary changes.

[Yubi Shines]

Eh, it's usually best to go in seeing a movie as a movie, and not as a visual mirror of your experience of the book. You'll be disappointed far too much with the latter.

[Orange Devil]

I know, but why does it have to be that way? Look at the first two Harry Potter books- perfect. Look at Lord of the Rings (extended versions)- Very abridged, but pretty damn close.

I am defenitely one to enjoy movies that aren't exactly like the book. Hell, it's hard for me to not like any movie. I just don't understand why it has to be that way.

[Yubi Shines]

Are you kidding? The kids' acting in the first two Potter movies were terrible. It only solidified in the third movie. Anyway.

The reason is that you can't possibly please everyone's mental image of a story. A minor example is fanart. Everyone but everyone drew Severus Snape with a goatee pre-movie. Post-movie, all the fanart suddenly had clean-shaven Alan Rickman in them.

Another reason is that with time constraints, you just can't put in all the details, or at least enough that the book purists won't start hopping and pointing at Their Favorite Scene That Didn't Appear, or Didn't Appear Right. I really really liked Tom Bombadil in the books, but he didn't really do enough that made him necessary in the movie.

Probably it would be easier with short books, like (as you say) the first two Potter books, but really involved ones like His Dark Materials would be harder. You'll notice the Potter books that have a billion pages translate into movies that aren't stories that stand alone, but sort of bundles of barely-connected Highlights of the Book scenes. Though they did make a good effort of that in the fifth movie.

[Orange Devil]

Well they pulled it off with Lord of the Rings, and most people agree with me.

And regarding the first 2 Harry Potter movies- I didn't say that the acting was good. I'm just saying that they captured the books very well and I defy you to name any major or even minor plot points that they changed.

[Mikero]

Everyone but everyone drew Severus Snape with a goatee pre-movie.

Ew no I never saw that. Gross. Just... Blech. Ew. Yucky.

Though they did make a good effort of that in the fifth movie.

They did. But on "Favorite Scene That Didn't Appear" note, they left out a lot of the plot that showed how dark everything was supposed to be. And I was excited to see the scene were Fred, George, and Harry fist fight Malfoy and Harry punches the ##### out of him with the Snitch in his hand. Which of course wasn't in the movie and I can see why, but... Damn that would've been so cool. I know you can't have everything in the movie, but I always saw that scene as a major point in the book; It got the three of them banned from Quidditch and their brooms taken away which was like the only thing Harry had that was making him happy, and it allowed for 'Weasley is Our King' later among other things.

[ASR]

Regardless, The Golden Compass was very close to the books, so shove off.

[White Shadow]

I haven't read the books, but the movie was a disappointment.

The Dungeon Siege Movie I watched last week was more gripping and it was done by Uwe Boll.

And it didn't manage to turn out a kind of anti-Narnia either. Narnia's story was awful, but I watched it twice anyway. I don't see myself watching Compass a second time.

I may write a list of things that bothered me later when more people have watched it.

[ASR]

Meh. To each his own. It didn't get very good reviews, but I keep hearing things from all sides of the spectrum - either it was amazing or disappointing.

[Speed Racer]

The Dungeon Siege Movie I watched last week was more gripping and it was done by Uwe Boll.

Is it any good? It's coming out here on January 11th, and part of me wants to drag my roommate to it.

[White Shadow]

It's not awful. But I kept thinking of the main character as "The Transporter (now with a saber instead of a BMW)".

[TheOnly]

I want to see this movie.