Last night A & I finally got to the discount movie theatre to see the Golden Compass. I'm really glad I didn't pay full price because I was sorely disappointed. You would think I would know by now not to get my hopes up and really expect great things from a movie, but alas, the trailer and what people said and so on had me all excited. Bah. I suppose it would be fine if you've never read the book, but alas, I have read the book. Now, I don't think that the book was the absolute best book since sliced bread or anything but neither is it chopped liver, if you get my drift. Drifting food metaphors, that is. I'm hungry.
The thing about movies made from books is that there are really only two choices. They either have to be fantastically done, adoring near slavish versions of the original texts - Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter - or they have to be completely different from the book, sharing only the titles - Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Mary Poppins, The Witches of Eastwick. The latter approach, as we can see from age of the titles, seems to be out of fashion. This is a pity because, look, if you're going to fuck the whole book up and add a lot of stupid exposition and a new, happy ending with a completely unconvincing, out of character inspirational speech, of all gruesome things, then just go whole hog and make a damn new movie that can then be good or bad on its own. As it is, you fucks, while I grant you that the movie was visually totally stunning and utterly gorgeous and all that, the rest of it made me unhappy.
In other news, there is no other news. M is going to be here this weekend, hurrah, yay, and I might just possibly go bowling tonight.
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3 comments:
hmmmm...
You know what would've made that movie more enjoyable? If I had had chopped liver ON sliced bread.
Nah, I watched it with good beer and good pizza and the movie still wasn't any good. Sometimes it takes more than liver to make a cinematic classic.
I didn't read the book and had no real expectations. To me it was like Narnia plus a coke polar bear commercial. It wasn't terrible but i had nothing to compare it to. I thought it ended so commercially ready to continue that i wasn't satisfied at the close of the movie.
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