The Hog's Head

Nate, he's the voice of the polar bear.  There's some other actors whose voices I recognize as some of the animals, but I can't place them directly.  Ian McKellan just stood out immediately when I heard the polar bear...his voice is just so distinctive. He's so awesome.

Ah ok, yes Sir Ian is made of all kinds of awesome, he's one of the very few bright spots to the X-Men franchise, saying he was awesome in LOTR is not doing him justice....

Okay, who's actually seen the film?  Because I thought it was a huge letdown.  I can barely remember the book from a two-year-old reading of it, but I felt like this had an even worse book-to-film transition than HP did.  Am I wrong?  Has my brain invented a much better book than the one I actually read?  (And if so, can I please get it onto paper?)

~bragg247

My fourteen year old went to see it. She liked it even if it wasn't faithful to the books -- and she's read the books more than I have. However, I think she was looking for a good time at the movies with her friends and not beling really demaning of the movie itself, if you know what I mean.

Well, here's another view for you.  I thought the books were really good and highly inventive (until the end, when I felt it had the world's lamest ending).  However, I was offended by one thing - as I remember (and it's been several years since I read the books, so I could be incorrect in this), Pullman portrayed God as this weak, pathetic, useless thing.  As a Christian, I'm not down with that. 

I also felt I was being beaten over the head the whole time by his anti-religion views.  But that was just an annoyance.  *shrugs*

Ok, so I've read the first three chapters of The Golden Compass/The Northern Lights and I'm having a hard time keeping an interest, I'm gonna pull through and continue reading but I'll say this, I never had a problem reading any Tolkien or Rowling works on the first time through and Tolkien can be tough if you're not ready for him, though if the first book you ever read was The Hobbit, partially because that was the only bed time book my mum would ever read to me 

I've seen the movie now, and I'm halfway through the first book (The movie was a BAD idea, cold movie theater and did I mention I'm even worse now? Ugh.). I must say I really enjoyed the movie, but I'm not generally picky with movies, and I'm just reading the book now, so it's not like I can notice the difference. Maybe I just liked James Bond as Lord Asriel, who knows?  My sister liked the movie as well, but she hasn't read the books either.

I'm having no trouble staying interested in the books, though. I can't stop reading! 

Yeah I'm up to chapter 10 and the "Big Reveal" of Lyra's parentage was sooooo underwhelmingly done... Seriously, I'm being less and less impressed with the book thus far... we'll see as things come though...

Admit it, Nate. You're just bound and determined not to like the book because people of a certain shipping persuasion hold the series up as a paradigm of how it SHOULD have been done in HP!

I finished the Golden Compass, and I must say I liked it. There's nothing of what the people of ...ahem, a different shipper persuasion use as an example, yet, and the book was good. Have the feeling I shouldn't like Lord Asriel as much as I do, but that's the bad part of seeing the movie first, I can't get this whole James Bond-ish image out of my head when I read his name. Oh, well. 

Started the second one.

And, finished the second one already. It's been good so far, though I can kind of pick up where the shippers of a different persuasion might compare some things (not that it makes any sense!). I must say I like Will 100 times more than I like Lyra, and that I keep trying to get the imagine of Daniel Craig out of my head when thinking of Lord Asriel and have been unable to do it yet. And, damn, I don't want to be specific in case you haven't read the books, but the ending of the second one is brutal! And they say JKR is a ruthless killer! 

I finished The Golden Compass, firstly, Asriel's a d**k!!! Secondly Iorek rocked! Other things, Dust being related to Original Sin and the Church wanting to deny/put down/deny it goes along with the way the Church gets a lot of the time. Yet, the whole political intrigue and grabbing for power is also very evident. Whatever the faith, it seems control might be the central issue I'm getting.

Anyway, I've started The Subtle Knife, Will seems cool 

I just recently saw the movie and plan on buying the books, but mainly because I was a bit underwhelmed by the movie, and figured the books must be better.  The movie felt like it was mashed together, that too much was happening in the last hour and had to happen quickly (I'm thinking of the bear getting his kingdom back as an example).  The first hour had a good build-up.  It reminded me of a rollercoaster--a long, slow climb to the top, and then rushing all around, turned upside down and not knowing where you are.

Still, the story seemed good, the acting was good, and the effects were pretty cool.

As for the religious controversy, I thought to myself afterward: "lolwut?"  If the Magistereum = the Catholic Church, it must be much more strongly conveyed in the books (another reason I would want to read them!), because to me the Magistereum was portrayed as any dictatorial authority with pretensions of being for 'the good of the people' would be, not necessarily the Catholic Church.

I finished the last book yesterday, and I'll go ahead and recommend them. I loved the series, the last two books in particular. I don't really see the arguments that shippers of a different persuasion use (but then again, I have serious problems with understanding most of what they say), but I found the books to be very good. Once I started the second book I never lost interest, and I grew to be very fond of some of the characters. That's not the say I like the books more than the HP series, but I enjoyed them very much nonetheless. 

And, once someone else finishes reading them we can turn this thread into a philosophical discussion! 

Well I've finished The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife and I'm on Chapter 22(?) of The Amber Spyglass. I'll say this much, Pullman is definitely Anti-Church, he hammers that point home, as to whether he's anti-God, dunno, we'll see I guess...