After years of Comparative Theology I've reached the following conclusion: The Devil is a complicated being. In my mind's eye he acts like Al Pacino and looks like James Bond... so when people tell me that Satan wants me to watch this movie, my reaction is to look at them with a twinkle in the eye and ask them... "so you are a fan of Daniel Craig too?" (Consider that the lame joke/ comment of the day).
Okay, Rafa, brace yourself, this IS a Review :p
This movie would have been a walk in the park, if it hadn't been for the controversy generated by it, which forces me to throw a bit of Liberation Theology into the mix. I'll eventually get to the supposed tale from the dark side... let me concentrate in the movie and the story it tries to translate to the screen first.
The film is epic in intent, yet doesn't make the cut. As of this moment this is not a bulleted review, but let me give you a couple of examples... the following segment will be sponsored by the word HOWEVER
- The visuals are stunning, the set designs are sure to make the cut to the Oscars... HOWEVER, in a movie in which the embodiment of the soul is a daemon companion, an animal, in this case; not much importance is given to the CGI for the critters. Pixels distracted me, and there is basically a CGI critter for every human character in the screen... take a bunch of children running on a field full of gorgeous tones of gold silver or clerics on a darkened room... all around them something is flying or purring or slithering or worse... VOICING IT OUT... in this world, there is no such thing as a private thought, your sometimes fuzzy and out of focus daemon will surely mess it up. And as I said before, this movie had much more money input than Beowulf or Shrek, the least they could do is provide decent daemons, since they are so vital to the story.
- Golden Compass pretends to follow the path taken by Lord of The Rings and the Narnia series HOWEVER, the pace and the scope of it doesn't help. The movie is marketed to children and young adults, yet the metaphysical nature of some of it's subjects, makes it inevitably a talking head piece... most of the kids around me were getting restless and that is a bad sign on a family movie.The scope of the piece is so big in intent that adults will not be able to enjoy it thoroughly, without saying WTF?! at least once. I am not saying that it is so deep we will all drown... it is as simple as plot development versus running time. It felt like X-3, cast of thousands, but we really know no one. Oh peoples of the Internet, don't even get me started with the Cliffhanger ending... it has the cockiness of a studio that swears they have a hit in their hands... sorry to say, it might be the number one movie this week, but it might not make enough to give us the pleasure of finding out what the hell was meant to happen... it is called CLOSING people, and all fabulous trilogies have it. Imagine for once, Raiders of the Lost Ark ending in an Island with a bunch of Nazis dressed as priests and Harrison Ford just saying "don't open your eyes"... you will be cursing the day...
- As far as star power goes, you cant get better than a cast that includes Ian McKellen. Christopher Lee, Nicole Kidman, Eva Green, Sam "I'm every Cowboy" Elliot and Daniel Craig HOWEVER their screen time is minimal.Craig, who seems to be all over the place in the promotional cut barely has about 15 minutes on screen. Kidman's Miss Coulter is in fact a Golden Monkey like her deamon clearly states. I mean, she is supposed to be REALLY EVIL, you know the kind of person that swears she is doing something good, the most dangerous villain of all, yet her dialogue is weak were it shouldn't be, is not her fault really. I wanted more witches and more gypsians, and perhaps a bit more bears, but time was running short....
A Shout out to the witches of the Northern Sky... Eva Green makes the best out of what she was given, she plays it gorgeous, like a real witch, and we all know that the real power of a witch is living her life without being bothered by the social dictations of what a woman should be. She plays it as she should, graceful and sensual, maternal when needed.Peoples of the movies, don't promise actors that will not be there, bad producers, bad,bad.
On the lighter side Sam Elliot was tryly enjoyable as Lee, the sorta out of place cowboy and his hare Hester was a hoot. He is one of the best developed characters and you'll find out why soon enough...
POLAR BEARS... if there is anything close to epic proportions in this movie is in fact that polar bear fight, you'll never see Coca Cola ads quite the same... bring it on!!!!
All in all is a nice popcorn ride, but nothing to stir the nerd in me as to wishing for the second installment to come my way. I liked it enough not to kill it with 15 bullets or less... I will probably watch it again on DVD...
Ohhhhhhhhhh, I see it coming, it's sort of bending in sharp angles Yessss, is The Little Theology Corner.
Going back to that whole Satan thing... lots had been said about the hidden agenda in this movie. Peoples of the Internets, it is not a hidden agenda when it is in plain sight...Pullman delivers it with impunity.
Ms. Lighshadow, here is one for you...Look closely on the air shots of the Magisterium, the ample piazza, closely safe guarded by mirroring walls that extend towards the main building, look closely and may be you'll discover that from the air, it sorta looks like a key... a Rome inside joke.
Pullman did not set out to stir waters with Christianity,(insert rolling eyes here)... otherwise, why would he call the basis of the human intellect "daemon"? you know that word makes nuns run...or identify his main scientific guy as Lord Asriel- a British guy with a very Jewish name in the lines of "he who battles God"as a meaning...
As a Christian I sort of laughed at the whole controversy. I didnt see it as much an attack on Christianity as an attack on the very human institution of the Church as the center of organized religion; represented by the Magisterium. If Lord Asriel's discoveries sound a little like Galileo's it is obvious...
Much like the Church of Rome in the Middle Ages, or the Pharisees in Jesus' time; the Megisterium dictates the truth, proclaims the truth and forces the truth down your throat. As far as truth goes, there a main difference between human and Divine perception. In the world of the Divine truth is an absolute, in the world of human beings, truth is relative. It has been the struggle of the Religious Institution for centuries to reconciliate Divine ruling with human nature... sometimes they screwed up royally; even after God Himself took care of it by coming into this world to sort out the big mess... well, mostly after it.
In their effort to convey the Divine, they rather bend the truth a little in order to get their way (and in the process, they have sent more than one down a very painful highway) It happened before, and I'm not pointing fingers solely at the Catholic Church, The Protestants did very well in Europe also, with this nonsense of forcing you to see what I see... it happened before, and sometimes books like these are written to remind us it shouldn't happen again...no offence taken, Mr. Pullman: your Magisterium is not my Church.
In real Christian Dogma, the institution should not have preeminence over the message. In fact is funny to think that Jesus Himself made a whole issue about it.
I could easily quote from the movie, but I'd rather leave it to a more credible source among Christians... go Jesus, as always, it's your birthday...Matthew 23: 13-15
"How terrible it will be for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You pretenders! You shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not enter. And you will not let those enter who are trying to.
"How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees! You pretenders! You travel everywhere to win one person to your faith. Then you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are."
Very much a la Jack Nicholson, Jesus knew that the institution couldn't handle the truth, even if you shoved a frigging compass down their throats. All because the seat of Organized religion is based on earthly power, when the Founder of it all advised them not to seek it, because their kingdom is not of this world... is a matter of absolute power corrupting absolutely.
I went to Rome recently and I saw it myself, the effort of one man, who actually "got it" and humbly asked for forgiveness for all the major screw ups. A shout out to John Paul II who saw through it and deemed it decent and Christian to recognize the right of people to be, think and act outside of the box. It takes a lot of guts to understand that the absolute truth of God is not necessarily that expressed by his most loyal or fanatic followers.
I live in a world in which an absolute truth called Love can reconcile the outcasts, the witches, the gypsies, the nay sayers, the scientists, the philosophers, the rebels and the men of faith, with no other rule than one that is by the way, Golden also.
It is very frigging simple, God said Love Me and one and other as you do yourselves... shit, I can't get easier than that, if you really get it going, no one will dictate what you should do, where you should go, what you should wear... you'll have your own golden compass.
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