He took the golden compasses, prepared in God's eternal store

[vovat]

I thought I should see The Golden Compass before it left theaters, and considering how few showtimes it now has, that will probably be happening soon. So I caught a matinée on Tuesday. There were a maximum of five other people in the theater with me, but one or two of them kept moving around. Anyway, I actually quite liked the movie. Sometimes I think the best way to enjoy these book-based movies is to have read the book, but not all that recently. That way, you can appreciate how they show the stuff you remember from the book, but you're not bothered as much by the stuff they left out. I could tell that the ending was different, even though I can't quite remember how the book ended. There was some kind of conversation between Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter pretty close to the end, wasn't there? That wasn't in the film. And there was another significant development that I'd forgotten about but have since seen mentioned in reviews, which I'm assuming will be in the next film, if there is one. Otherwise, though, I found it appealing both in terms of visuals (the daemons and bears looked great) and acting. Incidentally, I only recently learned that the book is called Northern Lights in the United Kingdom. So apparently we Americans not only don't know what a Philosopher's Stone is, but also haven't heard of Aurora Borealis.

I was hoping for a Prince Caspian trailer, since I'd heard that other people had seen one before The Golden Compass (despite the fact that Philip Pullman is vocal about his hatred of the Chronicles of Narnia), but no such luck. Well, the previews were already in progress when I got to the theater, so maybe I just missed it. What I did see were previews for a terrible-looking Will Ferrell basketball movie, and a few films based on books I've never read. I did find it interesting that the Inkheart preview included someone reading from The Wizard of Oz and a cameo appearance by Toto, though. Another preview was for the Horton Hears a Who! movie, and while I have to say that it doesn't look bad visually, I have to reiterate my question about why casting directors think Jim Carrey is ideal for Dr. Seuss stories. I did like the appearance by Vlad Vlad-i-koff, whom I believe is being voiced by Will Arnett.

After the movie, I noticed a car in the parking lot with "no spin" and "don't be a pinhead" bumper stickers, which I found amusing and disturbing at the same time. Then I went to GameStop and bought a copy of Final Fantasy III. While I was there, I overheard some kids talking to the clerk, and all of them seemed to have pretty much every recent video game system. Where do they find the money? Also, they had some special edition strategy guides that were wrapped up, so I'm not exactly sure what was special about them. I kind of think that the Internet has made video game strategy guides more or less obsolete. But then, some people say the same thing about CD's, and I don't agree. I can remember getting and reading the Nintendo Power guides to Super Mario Bros. 3 and the original Final Fantasy before I even had the games, but nowadays you can get a lot of that same stuff from websites like Game FAQs. I guess they don't have all the screenshots, though, so that's an advantage of paper guides.

Later, I went to Target, and then pick up bethje from work. On my way to the latter, I noticed that the same O'Reilly fan who had been at the movies was right in front of me for a while, which was pretty bizarre. Anyway, Beth and I met my mom, my brother, and his girlfriend at Applebee's, and we finally exchanged Christmas presents. I am now a few gift cards, a book on the Bible as history, and a DVD set of the BBC's productions of the Chronicles of Narnia richer. At Applebee's, I had the fried shrimp, which was quite tasty. I had actually been wanting shrimp, but my mom didn't like my initial suggestion of Red Lobster, so I guess you could say Applebee's was a good compromise.

Comments

[dragonxbait.livejournal.com]

We saw the movie slightly before xmas, and I had not read the books at all (not sure how I missed those ones). I really enjoyed it, and decided to read the books so I could feel in the know :-P. I thought the book was great right up until the last three pages or so. I had a hard time believing that Lyra would respond to the events in question in the way she did. I kinda got the feeling he was thinking about the next book and couldn't figure out how to end this one in a way that would lead smoothly into the next. But aside from that, still worth reading. (course I still have 2 to go).

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I've heard that the movie was confusing for people who hadn't read the book, but I actually think it was less so than the Harry Potter films. Since I've read all of the Potter and His Dark Materials books, though, I can't say for sure. Did you have any problem following the movie?

[arfies.livejournal.com]

I saw the movie before I borrowed the book from my brother (still reading it), and I followed it fine. I also heard that an early draft title for the book was "The Golden Compasses" from "Paradise Lost" (the drawing instruments, not the alethiometer) but when Pullman changed the title to "Northern Lights," the American publisher was attached to the title "The Golden Compass."

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I just read that yesterday. I guess The Golden Compass actually fits better with the other titles, since it follows the pattern of "The [Adjective] [Object]." But the alethiometer isn't a compass, and I was mildly annoyed by the fact they kept saying it was in the movie (apparently so the title would make more sense to filmgoers).

[dragonxbait.livejournal.com]

I had no problem at all following the movie, but reading the book right after was a kind of surreal experience. The same general things happened, but they happened in different ways or for different reasons. It was odd.