oh dear people are too serious about this film

Follow @empiremagazine

Forum Home

Register for Free!

Log In

Moderator Tickets

FAQ

Users Online

oh dear people are too serious about this film

Logged in as: Guest

Printable Version

All Forums >> [Film Forums] >> Film Reviews >> oh dear people are too serious about this film

Page: << < prev 7 8 [9] 10 11 next > >>

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

oh dear people are too serious about this film - 18/12/2007 6:35:26 PM

Beehive Spirit

Posts: 22
Joined: 6/12/2007

My god. It's a film. Ha ha. I was entertained. I'm going to watch 'El Topo' now and compare religeous symbolism's with 'Compass.' I'd like to see a spanish versin of 'Compass' with some skinned goats and people with no arms or legs with deamons also missing limbs. What fun.

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 241

oh dear people are too serious about this film - 18/12/2007 6:35:35 PM

Beehive Spirit

Posts: 22
Joined: 6/12/2007

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 242

Interesting failure - 19/12/2007 5:42:26 PM

Winspurd

Posts: 7
Joined: 5/1/2006

I have to confess that I've just rather enjoyed The Golden Compass. I thought generally it was very well cast and acted and visually was a faithful and consistant representation of the Pullman word. The main problem is unfortuantely with a book so dense with ideas it is difficult to transfer those ideas to the screen in more than a cursory way and still maintain forward momentum. So on occasion the ideas slowed things down and on other occasiona the lack of ideas was frustrating. A difficult book to adapt and i don't see matters improving with future books but still want to see them made.

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 243

RE: Interesting failure - 19/12/2007 6:06:15 PM

oddzag

Posts: 956
Joined: 16/11/2005
From: The Land Where The Cuckoo's Nest

Worth it for two things. Final battle and "So you want to ride me?", which had me in stitches for about 10 minutes.

Other than that it was utter shite.

_____________________________

Ain't logical. Cuttin' on his own face, rapin' and murdering - Hell, I'll kill a man in a fair fight... or if I think he's gonna start a fair fight, or if he bothers me, or if there's a woman, or if I'm gettin' paid - mostly only when I'm gettin' paid.

(in reply to Winspurd)

Post #: 244

Very disappointing - 20/12/2007 11:49:32 AM

rickybeed

Posts: 10
Joined: 6/10/2005

Very disappointing. If I hadn't read the books, I would think that the plot was disjointed, the CGI was rather poor in places, but in general the special effects were good. The actors were under utilised and the dialog often very un-engaging. The rapid pace left no room for developing the characters... I could go on!

But as I have read all three books, I say - what a waste of such a potentially brilliant story!

So yes, I'm very disappointed

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 245

Very disappointing - 20/12/2007 11:49:43 AM

rickybeed

Posts: 10
Joined: 6/10/2005

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 246

RE: what they need to do... - 20/12/2007 1:53:37 PM

Missile Truck

Posts: 20
Joined: 5/12/2005

Terrible film...dreadful editing, incoherent plot, pointless characters, laughable acting. I looked forward to this film for months...what happened? I feel like I turned up to the cinema expecting something epic, only to find that New Line had broken in like some ASBO teenager and taken a CGI bloated dump in Screen 2.

Shocking.

< Message edited by Missile Truck -- 20/12/2007 1:55:15 PM >

(in reply to Timon)

Post #: 247

RE: what they need to do... - 20/12/2007 9:09:15 PM

Wilbert

Posts: 9511
Joined: 5/10/2005
From: Dublin: Ireland

This was disappointing.

Although having said that, I don't know how you could get a book that dense into 2 hours and not have to hack it to the bone. There's just too much info.

The LOTR books were hefty enough books but they were a lot easier to condense once you trim away the huge amount of material that is historic info and not absolutely necessary to the story.

Pullman's books have the problem of seeming like childrens books when they aren't really.

The kids at the cinema I saw it at were bored out of their arses!

The problem was that with so much info to get across to the audience there was no real time for relationships to develop. Nicole Kidman was good but was onscreen for maybe 10 minutes, Craig even less.

Lyra's relationship with the bear was also difficult to grasp. He was in it for about 5 minutes but we were expected to believe that they were great friends. It didn't work.

The look of the film was amazing and the daemons were great. That creepy monkey was great and when Nicole Kidman slapped it I was able to turn to my lady-friend and say "Spanking the monkey in a kids film?!?!?"
I was most pleased with myself!

The ending to the bear-fight was unexpectedly graphic too.

It didn't refrain from being too scary for kids either.

An interesting mess but a mess just the same.

_____________________________

You're killing Independent George!!!!

(in reply to Missile Truck)

Post #: 248

How to waste 6 hard earned pounds in one foul swoop - 20/12/2007 9:50:13 PM

chimpgirl

Posts: 1
Joined: 20/12/2007

The Golden Compass was, in one word, rubbish.

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 249

RE: How to waste 6 hard earned pounds in one foul swoop - 21/12/2007 9:03:27 PM

joelteon7

Posts: 24
Joined: 24/2/2006

I hadn't read the books, but, I don't think I would as indicated by this film and have no intention of seeing sequels.

Inconsistent pacing (almost falling asleep 40 minutes in, to revitalise my self 10 minutes later to find the exact content of what I missed was nothing).
Horrific acting at points. Underused acting the rest of the time (why both putting Kidman and Craig on posters, really?)
Little care for characters. Other than the frequently appearing witch, the cool sky captain guy and the good bear, there were few, if any, characters to sympathize with.
Continuinty. I don't usually complain about this, but with the last sequence ranging from what looked like clearly not to be a battle to "when did asexual reproduction occur so quickly..and in humans?" along with battle armour for the bear that seemed to appear when it wanted to, I was baffled in places.
'Revelations'. The aire of predictability was stupid, honestly. "Oh, THAT'S happened...Star Wars, anyone?"
CGI. Whilst generally good, some scenes in the tundra were laughable.

Wanting the main character to die from annoyance, along with varying other issues, the film is technically bad. Entertaining? Fairly so. Not quite as much on the scale of bad-to-entertaining as Transformers, with a plot that clearly is sophisticated and worth investigating, this film is not the place to do it. 2 stars. 3 if you can't hold yourself from laughing near the end out loud and 'ruining' people's entertainment of the film.

(in reply to chimpgirl)

Post #: 250

RE: How to waste 6 hard earned pounds in one foul swoop - 21/12/2007 11:34:26 PM

Wilbert

Posts: 9511
Joined: 5/10/2005
From: Dublin: Ireland

quote:

ORIGINAL: joelteon7

I hadn't read the books, but, I don't think I would as indicated by this film and have no intention of seeing sequels.

Inconsistent pacing (almost falling asleep 40 minutes in, to revitalise my self 10 minutes later to find the exact content of what I missed was nothing).
Horrific acting at points. Underused acting the rest of the time (why both putting Kidman and Craig on posters, really?)
Little care for characters. Other than the frequently appearing witch, the cool sky captain guy and the good bear, there were few, if any, characters to sympathize with.
Continuinty. I don't usually complain about this, but with the last sequence ranging from what looked like clearly not to be a battle to "when did asexual reproduction occur so quickly..and in humans?" along with battle armour for the bear that seemed to appear when it wanted to, I was baffled in places.
'Revelations'. The aire of predictability was stupid, honestly. "Oh, THAT'S happened...Star Wars, anyone?"
CGI. Whilst generally good, some scenes in the tundra were laughable.

Wanting the main character to die from annoyance, along with varying other issues, the film is technically bad. Entertaining? Fairly so. Not quite as much on the scale of bad-to-entertaining as Transformers, with a plot that clearly is sophisticated and worth investigating, this film is not the place to do it. 2 stars. 3 if you can't hold yourself from laughing near the end out loud and 'ruining' people's entertainment of the film.

This may be the most poorly-written review I've ever read. Particularly that last paragraph! Shocking!

_____________________________

You're killing Independent George!!!!

(in reply to joelteon7)

Post #: 251

Roll on Part 2! - 26/12/2007 4:28:37 PM

Bond1971

Posts: 16
Joined: 31/8/2006

Nicole Kidman - absolutely babe. Rest of the it was absolutely rubbish. Hopefully the lowish box office takings and all the dreadful reviews will mean no part 2! Come on Peter Jackson, direct or just produce The Hobbit, and show these idiots how to really do these fantasy christmas films well.

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 252

Read the books first... - 26/12/2007 8:11:31 PM

dahlia79

Posts: 32
Joined: 30/9/2005

...if you want to have a clue about where it's all heading. I can't see how anyone could follow the film if they hadn't already read the books -it was more a series of disjointed scenes than a fluid story. There were some good things: Lyra was pleasingly unannoying (do you think it's because Freddie Highmore is her daemon?); the CGI on the whole was good; it was very well cast; Kidman deserved a better film for her performance. I don't know that they'll make the sequels given that it hasn't done well in the US but to be honest I don't see how they can anyway; if they've watered down Pullman's content this much in the first one, how are they going to make the other two? Remove religion and you remove what made the books so rich -and that is much more explicit in the other two books. I think that by watering down the religious aspects from the outset, New Line have backed themselves into a corner -they haven't got anywhere to go.

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 253

I liked it - 27/12/2007 7:23:27 AM

harvey_payne

Posts: 5
Joined: 17/12/2005

Bit slow at the start, but once it go going -it was darn good!!! The big shame is that they really have to make a sequel as they nicked the ending off the film (the reason why i didnt give it 4 stars!) - but they might not as its performance (box-office) is not good.

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 254

RE: I liked it - 27/12/2007 10:57:41 AM

benmharper

Posts: 2146
Joined: 15/12/2005
From: Carlisle

A bit poor IMO. Looked good and the CGI on a whole was good but was really slow in parts and due to the lopped off ending there was no feeling of watching the story to a fitting conclusion or (as there is 2 more parts of the whole story) a suitable stopping point.
**/*****

_____________________________

#3 member of The Wire fan club. PM Dantes Inferno to join.

(in reply to harvey_payne)

Post #: 255

Pile o Pants - 27/12/2007 11:37:47 PM

badsandwich

Posts: 6
Joined: 18/5/2007

Have literally just returned from watching this drivel, I was so angry that I had to vent my spleen somewhere. Firstly, if you are a fan of the books don't bother going to see this film, it takes everything that is good about the opener and just chops it about into vignettes of crapness. The importance of Lyra is mentioned in passing, Daniel Craig has a shave and Nicole Kidman spanks her monkey. I'm that annoyed I can't string a coherent sentence together. Just don't bother. Gargh,,,,,,,

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 256

- 30/12/2007 7:51:58 PM

Shredator

Posts: 1
Joined: 30/12/2007

Obviously an awful awful film, really truly one of the worst. How many times can one battle have another last minute secret ally army not quite manage to overturn the tide - I counted 4...

My BIGGEST disappointment was that you guys ran your sycophantic feature article 2 months before the review turned up! Is this the film fools telling you when to publish or did it really take you this long to arive at this decision?

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 257

sorry,but I thought it was okay - 31/12/2007 12:26:50 AM

bretty

Posts: 143
Joined: 6/10/2005

Not read the books (yet) so went in with an open mind and quite enjoyed it. Yes there are flaws, but there were some interesting ideas and although it was not deep enough, I enjoyed the alternative vision of our society. Saw this the day after I Am Legend and found this the more entertaining of the two.

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 258

Excellent Adaptation - 31/12/2007 2:18:35 AM

Wilbo

Posts: 1
Joined: 16/9/2007

This film exceeded my expectations. I was nervous to begin with because I was worried about what they might have cut from the book. I knew they had chopped the ending, they had swapped Svalbard and Bolvanger around and cut any specific mention of the church, so i was a bit prepared for what I thought was going to have been a massacared story. And it wasn't. The film hit almost every point that the book did, staying very faithful to the story. Yes, New Line were idiots in editing it the way they did. Because of this, the film does move at a break neck speed. But this just makes it all the more fun and exciting. The acting was incredible from everyone, especially Dakota Blue Richards. She acted the pants off of the terrible kids in Harry Potter and Narnia and she was exactly as I pictured Lyra. Nicole Kidman was perfect as Mrs Coulter, being just as terrifyingly sweet and bone-chillingly evil as I remember her in the book, perhaps even moreso. What she does with her eyes is spell-binding and horribly cold. Daniel Craig fit the role of Lord Asriel well, though is admittedly a little underused, and Eva Green is exactly as I imagined Serafina Pekkala in the book.
The visuals are mind-blowing and breathtaking. The CGI, if a little dodgy on the Golden Monkey, was also brilliant, with the animation on Pantalaimon as the Polecat and the Panserbjorne being spectacularly real.
And the story is laid out in it's full glory, though those with a very short attention span will not understand it if they do not pay attention. Other than the editing, my only complaints are the cut ending, which i do not count as a proper complaint, as I can see the reasoning behind it, and the film could have been 45 minutes longer, giving the story a little more room to breathe and making time for a little more character development. We all know this is down to New Line preventing director Weitz to even go near the editing room. If they had not cut out those 45 minutes, maybe everyone would look

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 259

RE: Excellent Adaptation - 31/12/2007 2:57:00 AM

PhaedrusX

Posts: 1
Joined: 31/12/2007

Hey. I saw this on release and had mixed feelings. I think the biggest mistake was the whole not finishing thing. The origonal ending will be a strange start to the second film.
Anyways, I wrote a review. Check it out.

Oh and Empires review was a good read, I thought.

_____________________________

'All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.'

(in reply to Wilbo)

Post #: 260

very good - 31/12/2007 1:46:50 PM

ryanand conor

Posts: 47
Joined: 17/7/2007

if you're a fan of narnia and harry poter then you will probably enjoy this film it could have been better but I still enjoyed it and I am looking foward to the next not the best film of the year but still a very enjoyable film

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 261

Read this Olly. - 31/12/2007 7:14:41 PM

Roll

Posts: 36
Joined: 5/12/2007

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/12/golden_compass_scripts.ht ml

It wasn't Weitz's fault.

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 262

A great story ruined - 1/1/2008 9:23:18 PM

davieboy

Posts: 85
Joined: 6/4/2007

First off all I would like to point out I am a huge fan of the books. My first opinion was that some guy who had never read the books was brought in by Hollywood and on the second page of the book he dropped it of some high place losing some pages and rearrangement the rest as he pleased shortening the book to 100 pages. The film itself felt very rushed with no attention to detail and was not fluid at all, and the big climax battle seemed to have been made so long to please the kids. (in the books the battle was not that dramatic nor the end)

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 263

RE: A great story ruined - 2/1/2008 7:40:57 PM

=JD=

Posts: 547
Joined: 8/10/2005

The film was fairly enjoyable, not as good as the books by any means. But then adaptations tend not to be.

I just hope they release an extended edition/directors cut on DVD, which will hopefully be a bit more coherent and faithful to the source material.

(in reply to davieboy)

Post #: 264

RE: A great story ruined - 3/1/2008 9:34:58 PM

DaveNewman18

Posts: 1650
Joined: 11/2/2007
From: Brighton

Never read the book, went to watch the film with low expectations, and I turned out to be right. it wasn't 'bad' as such, there just wasn't anything that made me think it was that good. And Daniel Craig- he had what, two scenes? I'm not sure how much Asriel is in the book, but from the way the character was introduced it felt like he would of been a central protagonist.

_____________________________

Twitter: @davenewmanexp
Follow me if you dare ;)

(in reply to =JD=)

Post #: 265

RE: A great story ruined - 6/1/2008 12:37:55 AM

=JD=

Posts: 547
Joined: 8/10/2005

After finishing 'The Northern Lights', I can now see just how much the film missed the plot.

It had all the potential to achieve great things...but instead it ended up as a sloppy christmas cash in, which confused people who hadn't read the books and annoyed people who had.

Now off to read the second book and will certainly be avoiding the second film!

(in reply to DaveNewman18)

Post #: 266

- 6/1/2008 11:26:08 AM

Gold Digger

Posts: 143
Joined: 3/10/2005
From: Outside London

This wasn't as bad as I was lead to believe. Perhaps I wasn't that bothered about the mythology so I sat there and enjoyed it for what it was. CGI animals were superb, the best I have seen and very cute! But we could have done with more of the adults. Kidman and Craig were hardly on screen.

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 267

- 7/1/2008 8:22:24 PM

brown48

Posts: 2
Joined: 7/1/2008

I am not normally one to like fantasy films, and for me this was no exception. I could not grasp the story line and I think that it was poorly written. I did though like the Ice Bear Fight I thought that that was a very good bit of CGI. .

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 268

Lovely Romance, Hugh Jackman dazzles. - 8/1/2008 5:29:11 PM

alexisreaver2132

Posts: 83
Joined: 6/5/2006
From: UK

Having read ''The Dark Materials'' years ago and owning them i was pleased to hear, yet also worried to hear they were making a film of this. Follows the story of Lyra in a parellel universe where people have a daemon (animal spirit) that is their soul, a part of them. What transpires is a complex plot revolving around Children, Dust, the Compass and The Authority. I can see why they have called this ''The Golden Compass'', and not ''The northern Lights''. Im not a book purist but they have completely missed out key things in the film relevant. Any mention of the Northern Lights is silenced. Dakota Blue Richards who plays Lyra does a lovely job in the lead and you can see how, as the film prgoress the more comfortable she becomes in her role. Nicole Kidman as Mrs Coulter had remarkable presence on Screen and really looked beautiful yet villianous. Daniel Craig as Lord Ariel is underused and his part maginal. Takes the whole film also to shave of that ridiculous excuse for a beard. Eva Green as Serafina Pekkala also has the same problem. Ian Mckellan who voices the bear Iorek added flair and power to the story. He seems to infuse life into any film he has a part in. Sam Elliot as Lee Scoresby. Audiences especially families may enjoy this but i was disappointed at how much they rushed the story and even the epic battle scenes were quick. Detail disappointingly missed out. Im not even sure how it ended was correct. With Film Companies, after LOTR, cottening on that theres a gap in the film world for fantasy they churn out so many clones these days. Being a fan of the Trilogy was disappointed on the whole that this turns out to be a cross between Potter and Narnia with a hint of LOTR. Wanted it to be a gritty and a earthly fantasy like Rings. Not colourful and kiddish. More sequels to follow obviously, will make a big amount of money box-office wise but to me just another fantasy film with some good ideas scattered few and far between.

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 269

RE: Lovely Romance, Hugh Jackman dazzles. - 10/1/2008 4:14:32 PM

le4kim

Posts: 12
Joined: 22/12/2006
From: Birmingham

I feel that people who HAVEN'T read the books will enjoy it more than those who have.

Personally, I thought it made sense to have that fight as the climax. And again, this would only bother you if you'd read the book.

(in reply to alexisreaver2132)

Post #: 270