Did it give you Atheism? Did it?

The Golden Compass
Regal Countryside 20
Sterling, VA
35mm
12/7/07

So I read this letter to the editor at rogerebert.com yesterday morning and thought, what the heck, I'll see if I can spot one in the next movie I see, which turned out to be The Golden Compass. Jamee went out shopping with her mom and sister and Tilda and I ducked out for two hours to see this and was disappointed that there were no protesters. Perhaps it was too cold. There were, however, at least three still images in the movie: There's a painting of Mrs. Coulter in her apartments, later Mrs. Coulter is holding a picture of Lyra, and then there's a bit where Seraphina Pekkala is talking about various locations that we'll be seeing later and the film cuts to a still image of a landscape.

So, anyway, is the movie actually any good? And more importantly, did it turn everyone in the theater into Atheists?

Not exactly.

It has been toned down considerably from the novel and though it's still anti-church, it's not necessarily Atheist. In fact, at one point Lord Asriel pretty much flat out says that God exists in their dimension, though it might not necessarily exist in others. Which isn't exactly an Atheist philosophy, the whole acknowledging the existence of God thing. The issue is mainly being about anti authoritarianism. You can get rid of the church and it doesn't mean that God isn't there.

But as a movie, and a story, The Golden Compass doesn't quite work. It feels like there's a longer version out there somewhere (In fact I know there is. They chop out the whole conclusion of the book and I know it was filmed because there's bits of it in the trailer) and the compression of the story into under two hours makes for a lot of people talking the way people only do in movies and a LOT of expository dialogue.

There's good stuff in it, though. Anytime Lee Scoresby or Iorek Byrnison are on screen it's pretty great, and I hope we get to see Scoresby's confrontation with the Tartars in a film version of The Subtle Knife. Iorek Byrnison is particularly impressive. He's the armored polar bear with the voice of Ian McKellan and when he starts attacking things it's awesome. It's pretty much that way in the book, too, and though I haven't read The Amber Spyglass yet I'll be disappointed if he doesn't show up. The kid playing Lyra's good, too, and I'm curious to see how they explain her aging if they actually do another film.

And there's one bit from the book that I was sure would get dropped. When we got to that part I found myself wondering how they were going to change it and then it happened exactly how it does in the book and that made me happy.

Ultimately, though, it's a fairly bloodless adaptation of an interesting book. I keep thinking that there's a longer, better version out there. And that's what I want to see.