What are your thoughts and impressions, having read The Golden Compass, upon watching this trailer? Has any transformation occurred in the translation from book to film?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj61Q5KPues
Please don't watch it until you've finished reading the novel.
Since I have never seen the movie version or the trailer of The Golden Compass, I was surprised by the level of animation and technology that went into producing the film. Since there was so many special effects, I lost interest in the storyline of the book and became focused on how "fake" everything in the film appeared.
ReplyDeleteSince the daemons were apart of the individual's personality, I never pictured them as pets. In the film, the daemons appeared as the person's pet, constantly at his or her side. I also did not imagine Mrs.Coulter as being young and pretty. I don't know if Nicole Kidman was the correct actress to be cast in her role. However, I have never seen the film, so maybe she is effective in scenes not shown in the trailer.
I was floored by the casting of Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel and Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulter. As a pop culture junkie, I was embarrassed by my ignorance regarding this information, but it fueled an interest in the movie. I think the action and depiction of the characters in the trailer really glamorized The Golden Compass, whereas I was pre-disposed to dislike the book solely based on the weird cover and my distaste for science fiction. I am slightly ashamed to admit that the Hollywood-version of the Golden Compass definitely resonates more with me than the original. In my mind many of the characters and scenes (especially Iorek!) were childish, goofy, and almost cartoon-like, but the depictions in the trailer were much more interesting.
ReplyDeleteI had seen the movie before I had read the book. The biggest transformation for me was the relationship between Lyra and Lord Asreil. The movie completely skips over the ending of the book, not mentioning Asreil's betrayal or even the reason why Lyra is needing to go to the other world to find the source of Dust before her father and perhaps save Roger (if everything that could happen does in an alternate reality, like the head and tails of a flipped coin, then Roger could still be alive in another universe). The movie plays their relationship as one of a loving father and daughter, but the end of the book doesn't. Other translations (like all translations) are that things are left out entirely, and events are temporally rearranged. Also, the movie felt like olden time London, but with new technology (like Starwars "a long long time ago" but with super advanced technology). The book made me think of a new world with only references to ours (as in London, the Arctic, America, and Africa) to give us a sense of familiarity. All in all, I liked the movie for its obvious visual effects, but like most adaptations, the book was better.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I typically enjoy the book version over the film and although I have not seen "The Golden Compass" movie, I feel the book would be the better version but I can't say for sure. After reading a book I create my own mental pictures for each character and they never mesh with the Hollywood portrayals. I think that was the biggest thing I noticed, obviously none of the characters appeared the way I pictured them in my mind, which is to be expected. I also am probably one of three people left in the world who isn't all that crazy about CG animation in movies and the film looks to be pretty heavy with it.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the book, I feel like the producer of the movie tried to get too much attention by how he casted it. Choosing Nicole Kidman is a way to get a whole new audience in to see the movie, and I think it might take away from the plot. Other than that, I thought that the special effects were very impressive in the trailer and it followed the way that the book went nicely. I don't see how the movie could be as good as the book though because there were so many different ideas in the story that I think have to be read to be understood, not seen.
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I think the book does a much better job than the movie prodution. I think the word flow and sentence organization in the book makes it for a very enjoyable read. I believe the movie really lacks the fluidness of the book. Too much hype was put into selecting actors and actresses, while the dialouge and actual story was overlooked, didn't even include the last part of the book. Overall the book is a much better piece
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone on this blog in saying that the movie would not be as good as the original piece of fiction. Everytime Hollywood tries to make a movie from a piece of fiction, it goes awry because they can never fit the whole story in the movie. Books are great because they are so complete. I also agree that Nichole kidman was a bad choice but i also think Craig would be a great Lord Asriel
ReplyDeleteI have not seen the film adaptaion of Pullman's Golden Compass and I dont think I will be watching it anytime soon. I have to agree that the CG cheapons the storyline and the cast seems mismatched with the characters from the book. To me this trailor portrays an "epic" film that cost a buttload to make. That certainly doesnt make it "awesome" in fact it can easily go the other way when yuo pump a lot of money into a movie it can really cheapon its storyline. Look at Peter Jacksons remake of the classic King Kong
ReplyDeleteI also do agree with mostly everyone and would choose the book over the movie. Whenever a movie is made based on a book, there is a very big chance that it will not turn out to be good and dissapoint a lot of people who really enjoyed the book and expected the movie to be the same thing. There are just so many details and important parts in a book that can't all be fit into a movie so the producers leave them out and that's what makes the movie not good. I have experienced it and even though I have not seen the Golden Compass movie, I don't think I want to because not only have I heard bad reviews about it, I prefer the book so I can get the real storyline and know that there isn't anything added or left out of importance.
ReplyDeleteI always like the book better than the movie adaptations. I have never seen the Golden Compass movie but from the trailer it seemed like it maybe followed the story line, but from what we talked about in class how the movie was horrible I'm sure a lot of important things were left out, or some things were changed which is frustrating. I think Nicole Kidman wasn't bad for Mrs. Coulter, she kind of looked nice on the outside but conniving on the inside. One thing that I did notice from the trailer is how futuristic London was. It was weird, because the book didn't make it seem like that at all and I think that was a wrong way to depict the setting. I pictured everything to be old, dark, and so forth not bright and futuristic.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I saw the movie before reading the book, so I was expecting a horrible book. Come to find out that the movie was just a horrible interpretation of a good book. I think the film makers would have been better off casting not as well-known actors so that our first reaction isn't "Oh it's Nicole Kidman." The movie skips a lot of things and doesn't go into things as deep as the book does, and this book is pretty complicated, so the movie makes it look like a bunch of random ideas mixed together. I think the film makers could've taken some hints from the people that translated the Harry Potter books to films. They did it right and these people did it wrong.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the book immensely, but even the trailer didn't really pique my interest. It looked okay enough, but It seemed like if you read the book, they gave away a few bigger details in the trailer than they should have. I might watch the movie, even if it is supposedly terrible.
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