I’m surprised a topic hasn’t been started about this yet, but given it’s reputation I can see why it wouldn’t be …
I had never heard of it, probably because it was banned as it was ‘anti-religious’. I usually seek out banned books because they’re often the best. Anyway, I read a bit of the first, but wound up seeing it in the theatre before I finished it. It was wonderful, and I couldn’t believe all those nasty reviews.
Yes, it’s anti-religious, but only if you read into it. The only way I can see that it is anti-religious is because it seems against churches who are seeking total control of what everyone should believe in.
Personally, I wouldn’t have known it was anti-religious if someone hadn’t told me beforehand.
But I won’t get into that. I don’t want to make people angry and I’m trying real hard to maintain a certain amount of respect for religions that are not my own.
So enough about religion- I just wanted to know who has seen the movie and/or read the books and what they thought about it.
I hate how they’ve re-branded the whole series. It didn’t need re-branding. It was perfectly fine as His Dark Materials, and the first book should still be called Northern Lights.
I’m re-reading His Dark Materials currently, and I’m pretty much just not even going to acknowledge the existence of ‘The Golden Compass’, both the film and the re-branded books. It’s yet another case of a beautiful series of books that has been exploited and, in the movie form, pretty much just dumbed down. The way the books are written has such eloquence, yet the film completely lacks this.
The abscence of an actual compass in ‘The Golden Compass’ is just one of those things in life that has really bothered me. I’m not even a die-hard fan of the series or anything, but if you’ve read the books, it’s very easy to be annoyed by a mistake involving one of the central themes of the whole thing.
And, concerning the anti-religious themes, well, it’s not really that obvious at all unless you’re aware of it beforehand. Even then, it’s hardly about the religions that we know of- it’s set in a different world, and doesn’t seek to offend anybody.
I wish I can talk more about it but I haven’t read the first book, only the first few chapters beforehand. Movies always dumb them down. I didn’t want to see it until I read the book but I was conned into sneaking in to see it after seeing I Am Legend.
Although I’m sure the books are a lot better, the movie could’ve been a lot worse. Take Eragon, for example. Though I wasn’t too happy with the book version of that either …
Too bad lots of people are shunning because ‘it’s anti-religious’ because they really are missing out. It’s truly completely harmless. I hate that society’s dislike for the series has caused me to not read them as a child. I would’ve loved to have read them. =P It just goes to show you that it’s true when they say the majority is not always right.
I really wish people would not apply religion to everything. The movie only mentions the church once, near the beginning, and it is never mentioned ever again. People seriously need to get over themselves.
I mean come on- I watch loads of things like Jesus Christ Superstar and other christian related things, and they are practically against my own religion. My religion may not be strict, but still … they at least accept other religions, just people don’t accept them.
Ya, I agree with FONY.
Who cares if it’s against religion, it’s entertainment… get over it!
Besides, how do you think people with other religions such as Islam feel about all of our American movies that depict all of them as criminals and terrorists?
Guys, I don’t want to get any more off-topic than this needs to be, but I’ll just say one thing more:
Jesus loves everyone, and no one should “mark” anything as more important than Him. He is your Father and Friend, and, if you’ve accepted Him, Saviour.
Did you really need to say that? Are you looking for a fight? I said no more off topic-ness. It’s nice that you have your beliefs, but I don’t follow that. Please respect the forum guidelines by remaining on topic. I’m sorry for ever bringing up religion; silly that the Golden Compass is said to have anything to do with it.
Im surprised that a flame was has not started yet actually. But anyways, As you guys know already that this movie is very controversial film. And with very good reason too. 3 weeks before before this movie’s release. The pastor at our Church, Dr. Art Heinz. Said don’t watch it right off the bat. And our pastor is a strong man of god. And I would take his word about something like this.
And A113, if you want to talk about this more with someone. I have Yahoo, MSN, and AIM. So if you want to talk. Just drop me a IM through one of those.
I’m not going to see it because I don’t have any interest in seeing it. I’m not gonna forbid myself from seeing it because of what I’ve heard. I did that with Harry Potter, and I realized that I can’t change anyone’s opinion. I have better things to do with my time. But if someone asks me how I feel about it, I’ll tell 'em.
I dunno why, but a bad review said that Lyra, the main character, has many different animals that follow her. I don’t know … they must be real dumb to not catch that [spoil]it’s the same animal transforming[/spoil]
And I never understood why they call the creatures demons when it’s spelt out daemon in the book. Confused me. Calling them demons make them sound evil and they’re not.
The animals talking was rather strange and kinda corny at first, but I quickly got used to it.
Love how they portrayed the witches. It’s nice to know that others are aware that there are good ones out there.
I’m looking forward to buying the soundtrack to this movie just for it’s instrumentals. I might also get a statue of the polar bear if they come out with a nice one. Would look great alongside my Aslan statue.
I don’t get why people are shunning the books and the film because of its religious content, but hey, that’s just me.
I agree that people shouldn’t see the film, but not because of anything to do with religion- more to do with the fact that it’s a pretty pathetic adaption of the novel anyway. If you are curious about the series, don’t watch the film, and instead just read the books. It’s definitely worth it.
I’ve never directly connected the books with religion- the whole point of the first book is the realisation [spoil]that there are hundreds of thousands of other dimensions co-habiting with our own, and they’re trying to build a bridge to one that apears to be present in the Aurora.[/spoil] But meh, maybe I’m just being naive.
So, final word- books are well-written and worth reading. Film is a load of rubbish with poorly developed characters and the story is hardly touched upon.
I heard it was atheistic and stuff too. Granted, this was said by someone who never saw the film. I didnt really believe them anyway, because it just looks like another fantasy film to me. It sounded to me like the same kind of people who wanted to ban Harry Potter because it “promoted witchcraft”
I am a devout Roman Catholic, but given that I haven’t seen the film, I have no grounds by which to judge it. I, personally, do not have any problems with watching the movie. If it turns out that it is, in fact, anti-religious (that is, after I actually watch the film), then I’ll leave it at that and never watch it again. Besides, I think my faith is strong enough (and I am certainly old enough) to make my own judgments on whether a film promotes bad themes or not.
To be perfectly honest, I am not very interested in watching the movie, but I might watch it in the future out of mere curiosity.
(Very off topic: Speaking of movies, I saw the trailer for The Dark Knight a couple of days ago, and it left me very much speechless!)
Though I wasn’t too happy with the book version of that either …
Please respect the forum guidelines by remaining on topic. I’m sorry for ever bringing up religion; silly that the Golden Compass is said to have anything to do with it.