Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Being kinda disappointed in The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass was visually interesting and did not feel rushed, as I have heard people complain. The little girl was cute and the basic premise really very interesting.

But there was something sour and bitter in the movie. It isn’t simply that it was anti-religious, but that it was vague about the problems between the shady religious group and the regular people, causing it to look like the knee-jerk reaction of a person who believes that religious people are foolish and grasping.

That being said, there were neat effects and was over all satisfactory for a bland little family film for angry atheists. (Wait, that didn’t sound as positive as I meant it to. Oh well.)

(Lengthy parenthetical sidenote: I’m tired of atheists and liberals behaving as though anyone who is conservative or religious is an idiot. I’m sure that they’re tired of conservatives and religious people acting holier than thou, but that is neither here nor there. This film was blatantly anti-religious, rather than anti-corrupt power. And that made me kind of sad. I know that it is based on books that are also anti-religious, but I totally don’t care.)

I enjoyed the strong female figures. I enjoyed polar bear warrior fighting. I enjoyed looking at animals. I didn't enjoy the cliff-hanger ending (no doubt never to be resolved). I didn't enjoy the lack of character development. I didn't like the lack of development about the history of the culture or dust. I think that this movie could have been more, could have been better, but I don't know that I could ever have loved it.

And that is all she wrote.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, given that this is based on the first book of a Trilogy, the cliff-hanger should have been expected.

I haven't seen the movie, but I've read the books. There where anti-religious themes, but they seemed more concerned with Dogma than faith. So I really didn't feel like it was talking about my beliefs. I always had thought of it as Narnia's evil twin.

It sounds like the movie's taken those themes and decided to beat people over the head with them. Boo.

qtilla said...

I don't know if it is that it was banging me over the head or if the movie needed to cover more background or if I just don't like putting up with bullshit.

I guess I wanted some sort of detail that made me understand the POV of both sides. Even if I didn't agree with them.... Without that, there was so little urgency.

Dr. Zoltar said...

The movie was disjointed. I really wanted to like it, but it was badly plotted. And some scenes just plain didn't make sense. There were bits and pieces I liked, but most other things came across as forced. Oh, the main character just so happens to find polar bear that needs his armor. Oh, the main character just so happens to find a helpful cowboy.