Golden Compass movie shines until the last moment....

This post has little relevancy to family gaming. It's about the Golden Compass movie, which, by the way, I would say is family-friendly and not religiously controversial/heretical.

If you've read the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, then please give this a read. If you haven't your still welcome, but this page is one big spoiler for the whole series.

*EDIT: Holy cow this is a helluva long post... and I wanna sleep right now. So I'll edit this tomorrow, in the morning/afternoon.

**ATTENTION!! If you have not read the Golden Compass/Northern Lights or Amber Spyglass books by Philip Pullman, OR HAVE NOT YET SEEN THE MOVIE, PLEASE STOP READING or continue at your own risk of SPOILERS. You've been warned ^_~ **

As a dedicated fan of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, I went and saw the Golden Compass movie the day it publicly debuted.

I was impressed by the presentation of daemons and alethiometer, how they streamlined the plot to movie format, the epic bear battle between Iofur and Iorek (long live the bear king), and the most incredible fantasy violence I have seen in a long time. Dakota Blue Richards was an engaging, lovable Lyra, and the supporting cast was solid. (Daniel Craig makes a damn good Asriel).

Computer effects and acting aside, what was even more impressive was how the movie skirted around the book's idea of the evil Magisterium. In the Golden Compass book, it's incredibly obvious (although I forget if it's directly stated) that the Magisterium is what we know as the Catholic Church. Lyra and her crew are directly fighting the Church. But this is only hinted at in the movie. Magisterium HQ is ominously architecturally comparable to a cathedral. Mrs. Coulter, played by Nicole Kidman, cunningly dances around an Adam and Eve allegory, telling the biblical story but not naming any names.

This was all fine and dandy--kind of. I respect the movie's choice (maybe it was the director's choice, but I don't know) of leaving out any specific material; there would have been even more outcry from Christian groups that have been protesting the movie**[Link]. But, it's kind of sad that movies, books, media can't make statements without such backlash.

Not to mention, these groups are missing the point. True, Lyra and Will kill God at the end of the trilogy. But it's not because of a blind hatred of God and Christianity. This is a statement about any kind of religion, and what can happen if the religious group becomes to overzealous.

The Magisterium is trying to spread and tighten its control over the entire universe and abolish free will. Free will. The very thing God gave to us in the first place. When religious rules and controls are taken to such absolute extremes, religion no longer becomes the guiding moral beacon it's supposed to be for people. It becomes constricting, repressing, and something to be very scared of.

Within the Magisterium ranks, it's not about being the most pious, it's about being the most powerful and having your policy pushed forward above all others. When politics takes over peace, piety and honest-to-goodness human passion--that's when you know something has gone wrong. I may be wrong, but I think this may be a warning from the author (an atheist who openly states his books "are about killing God"), just like 1984 and Brave New World were warnings for ways humanity should not go. That's what I, previously a Catholic schoolgirl for 8 years, took away from it.

Overall, for the movie's purposes, they handled the religious aspect very carefully and very well. Even the Catholic church thinks so.

However, I do have a bone to pick with this movie. I, of course, respect that the entirety of the book could not be neatly packaged into one feature-length fantasy film, but when there's about 10-15 minutes of crucial film and plot cut off at the end that's where I draw the line.

If you're reading this, you have probably seen the Golden Compass movie. Sweet. Then you'll remember after the end-all battle at Bolvangar, Lyra and Roger run off to rescue Asriel from murderous Magistrate officials. Lee Scoresby offers them a lift and they take off in the hot air balloon.

The movie eventually cuts to Lyra and Roger talking about what they still need to investigate and the future. Lyra asks her aliethiometer about Asriel, and when Roger asks about what it told her she said, "It says I'm bringing him what he needs."

Oh, how the foreshadowing pierced my heart, but I felt ready for what was coming next.

Lyra gave an uplifting soliloquy about upcoming events, and then the scene faded out, taking the whole movie with it.

I waited. The whole theater audience held their breath for a hopeful second, only to unleash a mighty sigh and mutters of disgust. Roger's death was completely left out of the movie. Despite Lyra's ending optimistic pep talk, I felt dirty and betrayed that I had been lead this far into the adventure only for it to be left incomplete and broken.

The scene was in the palm of the movie's theoretical hands. Lyra's one line had set the whole situation up so perfectly. "It says I'm bringing him what he needs." Oh, the agony and frustration.

MTV has an article about director Chris Weitz chopping of the ending. Even more interesting is the questions he answered about the movie from readers that explain his reasoning for the movie.

Yes, I’ll try to give you a reasonable answer, and an answer to a lot of other people who have asked the same sort of question. First, I haven’t “cut” the ending of the first book. I have only moved it to the beginning of the second movie. Some people are distressed by this, citing that the end of the novel is beautiful. Yes, that’s true. “And Lyra and Pan walked off into the sky.” But this ending was posing a problem for the (relatively few) audience-members who saw earlier cuts of the film. What is plangent and beautiful in the end of a novel can be confusing or off-putting in the end of a film.

For instance, people who hadn’t read the books (yes, these people exist! And they matter!) didn’t know if Lyra was in fact going to heaven. My job is to make sure that ALL of Pullman’s story will be told, not to flame out gloriously with one film. The juncture at which to leave audiences hoping for more was before Lyra sets off to find Asriel. She has fulfilled the intitial reason for her journey (to save her friend Roger), but there is a further tangible aim for her. Yes, I get that this means delaying some brilliant scenes from the book. But trust me, they would have been less brilliant if they had to meet the demands (as interpreted by the studio) of a movie-going audience for the end of the film. Whereas, difficult to handle/difficult to swallow material, which is to say dark material (no pun intended) can work perfectly well in the second film of a trilogy (cf. “Empire Strikes Back”). Trust me on this one, I was doing what I could to protect the integrity of these scenes and the overall story. Furthermore, I would not have done this without Pullman’s consent.

I can see where his concern comes from (having a movie that appeals to and is understood by all audiences), but I think if they were able to carefully construct the idea of religion, they should be able to easily articulate to an audience that Lyra is not going to heaven, but a city in the sky, a parallel dimension. I don't think that concept is to hard for the average movie-goer to grasp, but then again, I've probably read too many fantasy books and played too many RPGs.

So I guess I disagree with Weitz's interpretation. Roger's death easily would have established a better ending for a chance of a sequel. This ending is anticlimatic. Lyra's anguish and determination is what springboards the reader into the second book of the trilogy, and would have served the movies just as well (unless they're completely throwing the idea of finishing the trilogy in movie form... which I can completely see happening).

I can see where the movie might have wanted to end on a more upbeat tone. But even with Roger's death, it could have ended on a solid, semi-uplifting note (I swear, I don't like seeing people die and I don't have it in for this Roger kid, but the book's story is just so more compelling, dramatic and emotional that the film interpretation). They could have played out the betrayal scene with Roger's death, then Asriel and Coulter crossing over into Citagazze, and then have Lyra give her "rah-rah Pan-and-I-are-going-to-find-the-truth" speech and then cross the bridge. End film. Would take up an extra 30 minutes max, making it about a 2.5 hour, not to mention more worthwhile, movie.

Honestly, I think that would have worked fine. It still would have been an okay note to end on. Not a full-blown, feel-good, warm-and-oh-so-tickly-fuzzy Disney moment, but it would have been equivocal to any ending of the LotR movies feeling-wise (somber but determined tone... now that I think about it, the Golden Compass movie had an Enya-like song in its credits, just like LotR had one on their soundtrack... oh, New Line Cinemas, you crazeh). It's all right for a movie to end on a bit of a dark note, especially if the adventure is promised to continue in a second book/movie.

Speaking of a second movie, now remains the question--will there be one? Rumblings on the Internet suggest a Golden Compass movie sequel (seen here, here, etc.) is already lined up for 2009, but New Line Cinemas is waiting for the box office numbers on the Golden Compass.

Although I hate to doubt this possibility, I give a very solid "probably not," and hope that I'm horribly wrong.

As I mentioned before, the Golden Compass movie had a very lackluster ending, which is already bad news for a sequel.

But there is a much more powerful reason for why the rest of the trilogy won't see the silverscreen, and that returns to the religious reasons discussed earlier.

I have to admit, I was surprised with how cool the Catholic church was with this first movie. But that's just because Catholicism wasn't explicitly mentioned or stated, and no direct references were made. The Golden Compass has plenty of wiggle room to do this. The Subtle Knife and especially the Amber Spyglass do not have such luxury. From here on out Lyra and Will's ultimate task just becomes more and more apparent. I guess the movies could still have the Magisterium masquerade with this sort of unnamed anonymous religion, but from the books, everyone, including the Church, already knows it's THE God they are going to destroy. Simply, too much controversy. Too much mess.

And there is so much to capture in the Amber Spyglass. I really don't know if it can be crammed into one film in a way that does the grand finale justice. Aside from taking down Metatron, Will and Lyra also go to hell and back, Mary (another Biblical character, God help us) finds the strange elephant-like creatures and sraf, Pan and Lyra are separated, there's drama with secondary characters, and, most importantly, Lyra and Will's kiss. A very pivotal point to the ending and the importance of this kiss can easily be lost in Hollywood's oft-taken "romanticize everything" approach.

If they do go through with the rest of the trilogy, you can bet I will pay that $9 movie ticket to be there.