Reflecting on Northern Lights

A whole troop of folks (including L, Kris, Anna, Erin, Julie, Melody and Anthony) trekked over to the downtown Edwards 9 to see The Golden Compass on opening weekend. Somehow, I was expecting that the theater would be as packed as it usually is for blockbuster fantasy releases like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, but it seemed less than half-full when the movie started. Perhaps that's because of the nature of Boise (unfounded or not, some mainstream religions have made themselves into an enemy of this film) or that we hit an early afternoon matinée.

Whatever, the reason was that people weren't showing up in droves to see this movie, they were really, really missing out. It's been a few years since I listened to the amazing audiobook production of the series (His Dark Materials), but I was not disappointed by this adaptation. The acting was phenomenal and the special effects were beyond impressive -- I'm still not sure how they pulled off all those deamons as well as they did. The movie suffered a little for an incredibly rushed storyline (but at least it didn't bog down) and some of the music was simply atrocious in a movie of this caliber.

I'm eager to see how the second and third books are rendered into films and I can't wait to see how they'll deal with some of the more challenging issues that crop up further into the series. I'm also looking forward to rereading (or perhaps re-listening to) the books, to see how they really measure up with their movie counterparts.

Speaking of the movies, have you all seen The Spiderwick Chronicles trailer? I haven't read the books for that series yet, but it looks like fun. Plus, a gryphon! (What more do I need in a movie? I mean, I suffered through Narnia for just a few gryphon cameos, proving that I will watch just about anything for some sweet, sweet gryphon action.)