26 November 2007

It's an Alethiometer, kthx.

So what if I sat down and read all of "The Golden Compass" on Sunday? It's good, and I couldn't put it down, okay? I was rather intrigued in a children's book that talks of parallel universes in a way that most of the general adult population of America wouldn't understand.

I told myself I had to read the whole book so I could go back and watch the trailer for the movie "The Golden Compass" coming out December 7th and see how true to the book it looked. I'm pleasantly surprised. There are a few scenes in the new global trailer that I thought for sure they would leave out of the movie adaptation, and the animation of the bear characters such as Iorek Byrnison looks freakin' sweet.

The movie feels as if it's being presented at a slightly different angle than the book presents itself, but only watching the whole movie will tell me if it bothers me enough to call crap on it.

The ONLY thing that bugs me about the movie trailer is that they call the alethiometer a "golden compass". They never refer to it in the first book as a compass except once where they say it looks like a compass. Other than that, they always called it an alethiometer, because that's what it is. I hope they don't call it "the compass" throughout the whole movie. Blech.

By the way, the original name for this book was "Northern Lights" from the His Dark Materials series. Why the rename for the American book? The last two books, "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber Spyglass" didn't get a name change. It feels like Harry Potter and the *Sorcerer's* Stone all over again.

As far as the movie being so called "athiest propaganda", I call crap on it. Unless the movie differs greatly from the book there's no reason for this accusation. The book encourages us to not be controlled and brainwashed by the Church, but that's a far cry from athiesm. Sheesh. Get a grip. It's almost as bad as the athiests that called crap on the Chronicles of Narnia for being Christian. Except they had a little standing ground on that one because it sort of..well..was.. but if you don't want your children reading the book or seeing the movie, don't let them read or see it, and if it really bothers you as an adult, don't read or see it. People have a right to write whatever religious implications they want into their children's books, and you have a right not to read them. Just don't complain when I call you close-minded.

At least the movie comes in at 114 minutes compared to the film rendition of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" which clocked in at 135. My ass thanks you.

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1 Comments:

Blogger Chelsea said...

I LOVE HIS DARK MATERIALS!!

Jason and I both listened to all 3 in audiobook form, but I got him the series for Xmas. I didn't know there was a name change or I would have paid extra to have it shipped from wherever the original title exists. Guess I'm asking for the original this year!

4:24 PM  

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