On The Golden Compass
Unlike most people around here, I'm NOT too busy to enjoy a little entertainment right now. I've only got to write and administer an exam for Tuesday night, and grade said exam and written final project by Thursday night (we have 48 hours from the time of the final exam to submit final grades for each class). I'm actually more busy with stuff around the home and Christmas projects, than I am with academic stuff right now (thank GOD!)

In any case, this afternoon, my DH and I took a few hours to see The Golden Compass, the movie based on Philip Pullman's first book in His Dark Materials trilogy.



Having read all three books within the past month and having read a fair number of reviews by those who've already seen the film, I had fair warning about what was and wasn't going to be included. Therefore, I went in to the theater expecting to be moderately entertained by all the CGI while keeping an eye out for minor and major alterations and omissions.

I have to admit, I did find parts of it immensely entertaining. I was mesmerized by the close-ups of several key human characters' faces (the CGI characters' faces, not so much). I loved watching Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulter. Whether she captured my image of the character or not, I had a good time checking out her wardrobe and watching her sashay across the screen. Dakota Blue Richards, who portrayed Lyra, the main character, also had a face worth watching - especially when she was up to something.

I loved the clothing, the architecture, the snow and the take on the technology of this parallel world. I also really enjoyed the final fight sequence - what a lot of thrilling fun. There was a lot of death in this movie, but each death was rather spectacular, with the daemon of each dead human bursting into a cloud of shimmery golden dust. It was quite beautiful, actually.

And this beautifying of death is one of the biggest problems I had with the entire film. I came away from the experienced incredibly creeped out by just how cleanly violet death had been depicted. It was as if the humans and animals of this parallel universe were literally bloodless. In hand to hand combat with knives, pistols and bows and arrows, I expected at least a little blood. Add to this the fact that fighting took place on a canvas of very WHITE snow, and I expected to see a fair amount of blood during some of the more vicious moments. About 3/4 of the way through, there is in fact a very powerful fight to the death between two polar bears which ends with one ripping the lower jaw off the other and biting into his neck. Throughout this intense fight and even after, there is not a drop of blood - not on the white fur of the polar bears where they have been scratched and bitten, not on the snow where the dead jawless bear comes to rest, and not on the muzzle of the victorious bear that has just ripped out the throat of his opponent.

Not one drop.

If this movie was truly targeted at children, I am very bothered that they are being shown such excessively sanitized violent death. Battle is devastating, messy, and bloody.

But the lack of red stuff is not all that makes this movie so bloodless and gutless. The big bad in this movie, the Magisterium, was shallow and ridiculous. For almost the entire movie, the Magisterium was little better than the mustache twirling, hand-rubbing, power-hunger and uncomplicated villains of Saturday morning cartoons. (God, how boring!!!!) It even looked like the casting director hired the actor who played Count Doku in the recent Star Wars films to add extra menace (and some really fierce eyebrow action) to the Magisterium's top triumvirate. Total shallowness was slightly redeemed towards the end of the film by passing reference to the Magisterium's desire to eradicate free will with the slightest allusion to why, but I would have so preferred to hear this from the Magisterium's own mouth. I knew in advance this movie was toning down the anti-religion of the books, but I had hoped that this could be accomplished without completely hollowing out the nature of the power struggle.

And speaking of religion, after the film, I mentioned to my DH, who has not read the books, how certain wacko factions of the Christian right are protesting the anti-Christian tenor of the film. He thought they were either completely out to lunch or suffering from a guilty conscience. Perhaps even after the film was sanitized of Christian reference they recognize their own misdeeds in the actions of the Magisterium anyway.

That being said, I don't regret seeing it at all, and I have a secret hope that the movie does well enough to support a sequel, and that the sequel has more teeth than this one.