Golden Compass Reviews?

[Mizango]

Book movies are a lot easier to watch if you temporarily suspend your knowledge of the book to enjoy the movie for what the movie is.

QFT. Alot of people found that out after Eragon was released last year, myself included.

[Jimmayus]

I saw it yesterday, and really what somebody said about suspending your knowledge of the books is probably the best way to read it. The first book was supposed to leave you confused and a little betrayed; this one has some cheesy as hell ending thats supposed to be all chummy. Some things I didn't even understand the changing of, like the Svalbard<-> Bolvangar switch. I guess it was pretty though, and it was cool to see daemons.

[Vade]

Never read the books but thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Effects were top notch...I liked the pacing...but I know that I'm going to ruin my movie experience by reading the books. I hope they make the 2nd and 3rd movie.

Reading Eragon before the movie was a mistake Couldn't enjoy that movie at all.

[Mizango]

Reading Eragon before the movie was a mistake Couldn't enjoy that movie at all.

Don't feel bad, neither did I at first.

[Daydreamer]

Most of my friends who saw Eragon and didn't read the book hated it as well.

I just finished watching it with my girlfriend, she has read the book, and I haven't. She hated it...and I thought it was freaking stupid. It just seems wayyyyy too rushed. It's like "wait, why are they doing this. When did this happen?"

It's like I'm watching Harry Potter 5 or something.

[Jefe]

Reading Eragon before the movie was a mistake Couldn't enjoy that movie at all.

Don't feel bad, neither did I at first.

I didn't know that piece of crap was based on a book, just like this compass one (never read fantasy shit).

[Vinen]

I wasn't impressed with the movie. Found most of it boring and rather slow. I've never read the books. :bagel:

I did love a few scenes. ESP the Bear Duel.

[Iono]

Some things I didn't even understand the changing of, like the Svalbard<-> Bolvangar switch. I guess it was pretty though, and it was cool to see daemons.

Ohhhhhhhh!!!!! We kept thinking they were saying Ball Banger. And the ship with Blue Balls was so inuendo too! Plus when I saw the polar bear and the lil girl, I kept thinking of PedoBear.

Some of us liked it, some said it was too fast. None of us had read the books tho. So take it for what u think it's worth.

[Lexa]

I never read the book, but still wasn't impressed with the movie. It didn't flow very well, and didn't do anything to suck me into the plot.

PS. Never read the book that Eragon was based on either, and I hated that piece of shit.

[levish]

wasn't a 10/10 (what movies were anyway) but I liked this movie very much.

worth the 10$ to see it in the theaters imo and will go see the inevitable sequel.

[Starless]

wasn't a 10/10 (what movies were anyway) but I liked this movie very much.

worth the 10$ to see it in the theaters imo and will go see the inevitable sequel.

You pay $10 for ticket? Jeebus...

As for me, I have not read the book but I could just tell they left a bunch of important stuff from the book out thanks to the bad pacing. And apparently, the cut the cliffhanger ending the book had (or so I was told).

[Foustian]

wasn't a 10/10 (what movies were anyway) but I liked this movie very much.

worth the 10$ to see it in the theaters imo and will go see the inevitable sequel.

You pay $10 for ticket? Jeebus...

As for me, I have not read the book but I could just tell they left a bunch of important stuff from the book out thanks to the bad pacing. And apparently, the cut the cliffhanger ending the book had (or so I was told).

Well the book is set up as the introduction of a trilogy, whereas the movie (as of now) is a stand-alone thing. So it makes sense that they wouldn't wanna end it in a cliffhanger if they're not sure they're gonna make the second two.

[Melchiah]

I write this assuming you read the books, so you will find spoilers here. If you don't want to be spoilerfausted, stop here.

@ Xavier: The pacing of the film is drastically faster than the book, which you can understand having read the book. As for the relationship between people and their daemons, I didn't really get the feeling that they were "pets" instead of extensions of the soul. There was a pretty faithful translation of the anathema of touching another person's daemon, and the fight between Pan and Ms. Coulter's monkey.

The bear duel was awesome. I was expecting Iorik's finish of Ragnar to be toned down in the film, but I assure the jaw smiting is intact and well done.

The only thing I really didn't like was that the movie ended with Lyra taking Roger to Lord Asriel instead of Lord Asriel's acsension. That was really the only wtf? moment for me. I'd say go see it, I was not disappointed.

[Varg]

wasn't a 10/10 (what movies were anyway) but I liked this movie very much.

worth the 10$ to see it in the theaters imo and will go see the inevitable sequel.

You pay $10 for ticket? Jeebus...

As for me, I have not read the book but I could just tell they left a bunch of important stuff from the book out thanks to the bad pacing. And apparently, the cut the cliffhanger ending the book had (or so I was told).

Well the book is set up as the introduction of a trilogy, whereas the movie (as of now) is a stand-alone thing. So it makes sense that they wouldn't wanna end it in a cliffhanger if they're not sure they're gonna make the second two.

They did end it with a cliffhanger.....and a worse one at that... At least the cliffhanger in the book ends on an awesome note as the sky is ripped open and Lord Asriel walks into another world. The people in the theater were vocally displeased with the weak non-ending.

Overall, I felt the movie was a passable translation but only because I read the book. I would have liked it if there was more explanation of just about everything since it felt like it jumped from place to place without stopping to breathe. Then, on top of everything, the ending sucked horribly. I would rather they left the ending intact rather than this non-ending that sort of laid down and died quietly.

[Xavier]

Saw the movie earlier today, enjoyed it.

The pacing is very fast though, and if you haven't read the books, you'll be missing out on a lot of the "assumed" information. I didn't really understand why they did the Svalbard/Bolvangar switch either, to be honest. The Witches weren't really explained at all, save for one conversation, they all just show up at the end in a pretty cool fight. I felt like the daemons were explained well though, so I don't know where that idea came from.

I felt as betrayed by the ending of the movie as I did by the book, but obviously for far different reasons. I can -understand- why they changed it, but the book ending was just so badass and would've looked absolutely awesome in the movie. To be honest, I think the movie would've benefited from another 30 minutes of footage, but like I said, I still enjoyed it.

[Jedimasta]

It has been awhile since I read the series but I thought the intro to the movie happened a few chapters into the second book after will discovers the powers the knife has. I could be wrong but I swore they never discussed these "portals" until at least Lord Asriel's sit down at the college with all the faculty. Probably the one thing I was really wishing for was the huge congregation of all the gyptians when Lord Fa calls all the families together and not just the heads of the family on his boat. It felt really powerful when such a large man could so easily control so many people. Could be just me though lol

[Dmitry]

I just reread the whole series, but haven't watched the movie yet. I'm fairly certain they never discussed portals in the first book, and when **OMG SPOILERS**







Lyra was in the wardrobe, they were just discussing the Dust, and because Lord Asriel had found a way to view it via photos.

Also, I read that they actually filmed the actually ending of the book, but because they weren't sure if they are going to be able to make the second or even third movie, they left it as it is, and were thinking about using the footage of Asriel and then Lyra walking into the new world at the start of the second movie.

[Xavier]

It has been awhile since I read the series but I thought the intro to the movie happened a few chapters into the second book after will discovers the powers the knife has. I could be wrong but I swore they never discussed these "portals" until at least Lord Asriel's sit down at the college with all the faculty. Probably the one thing I was really wishing for was the huge congregation of all the gyptians when Lord Fa calls all the families together and not just the heads of the family on his boat. It felt really powerful when such a large man could so easily control so many people. Could be just me though lol

While the portals were never directly discovered until Lord Asriel tore apart the sky, the infinite worlds was brought up in the first book, both during his lecture at the college and by the witches later on. The introduction kind of explained a lot of the details you would've gotten later on from the witches anyway, but in a shorter, faster version.

Still, I thought the special effects were good, the acting was good, and for the most part did the book justice. Like I said before, it was too rushed though, and another 30 minutes of footage would've really helped balance the movie out overall. Still, I'm hopeful for a second and third movie.

[Tristam]

It has been awhile since I read the series but I thought the intro to the movie happened a few chapters into the second book after will discovers the powers the knife has. I could be wrong but I swore they never discussed these "portals" until at least Lord Asriel's sit down at the college with all the faculty. Probably the one thing I was really wishing for was the huge congregation of all the gyptians when Lord Fa calls all the families together and not just the heads of the family on his boat. It felt really powerful when such a large man could so easily control so many people. Could be just me though lol

While the portals were never directly discovered until Lord Asriel tore apart the sky, the infinite worlds was brought up in the first book, both during his lecture at the college and by the witches later on. The introduction kind of explained a lot of the details you would've gotten later on from the witches anyway, but in a shorter, faster version.

Still, I thought the special effects were good, the acting was good, and for the most part did the book justice. Like I said before, it was too rushed though, and another 30 minutes of footage would've really helped balance the movie out overall. Still, I'm hopeful for a second and third movie.

I agree, another 30 minutes with some more explanation would have been perfect. Part of my disappointment was having read the book too soon before the movie, and while reading the book every now and then I would appreciate the descriptive stylings of the book and think about how wonderful it would be in the movie. Many parts of course didn't make it into the movie, but I think someone that understood the story but perhaps hadn't read the book in some years would appreciate the movie to a much greater extent. I saw the movie with my girlfriend, who hadn't read the book, and the one thing I think she missed out a bit on was the immense strength of the bond between human and daemon. I think they nerfed that aspect a bit, but since it really took the entire series to fully appreciate, I guess it's something I can let slide.

[Falisa]

Kinda skimmed through the other posts.. but I saw this movie a few days ago. Never read the book and my end feeling of the movie is meh. Sometimes it felt like it was really a kid movie and other times stuff was really...'gruesome' for a kid movie. Some things were just kind of how did they just all of a sudden happen? I would give examples but don't want to give spoilers. lol

And about the Eragon movie, with that one I felt like they should have made it an hour longer to make it a good movie. They rushed alot of the storyline like learning how to breathe fire for example. Saying they need alot of training to learn how to do that etc etc...two minutes later the dragon is breathing fire.