The Golden Compass Again

We made it out to see the new movie, The Golden Compass on Friday, and I gotta say it was pretty good. If you (like me) haven't read the books, you better get there on time and pay attention. Otherwise you'll spend a lot of time trying to figure out who's who and what's going on. If you plan on bringing the kids, keep the PG-13 rating in mind: There are some parts that young kids would find scary, and while the violence isn't graphic, there's quite a bit of it.

I wrote a little bit about the controversy surrounding this movie in an earlier post. I don't think the anti-God message is as strong as I'd heard it was, but it is there. I think you would pick up on it even if you weren't looking for it, but I say that as someone who went there looking for it. Rather than anti-God or anti-Christian even, the story needed a villain for Lyra (the heroine) to triumph over. It turns out that the Magisterium, which is apparently "The Church" is that villain. It's not so surprising that an atheist author would portray The Church as a body of money-hungry and power-hungry control freaks, who are the enemies of free will and free thought. That's not a unanimous view of the church in our world, but it's not that uncommon, and this never claimed to be a Christian movie. I think it's unfortunate that religion is portrayed that way in the movie, because the real church doesn't need any more bad publicity or people associating the church with bad people they need to avoid.

Having said all that, we did enjoy this flick. I read in an article somewhere that the awesome armored ice bears are loosely based on me, being as big and bad and fearless as I am! (cough)
I wouldn't mind commenting on some more specific scenes, but I don't want to post any spoilers. And I would fight an ice bear to get a voice like Sam Elliott's!

This is derifter (not Les Nessman) saying so long, and may the good news be yours.

The Golden Compass

I got an e-mail a few days ago warning about the upcoming movie, The Golden Compass, saying it's a movie about killing God. According to the e-mail, it's "the anti-Narnia". It also contained a link to Snopes.com, where there's a brief summary of the movie and of the author of the book series the movie is based on. The Snopes.com link quotes the author from a 2003 interview as saying, "My books are about killing God." So I guess there isn't much doubt about what the books are really about.

But if you've seen the trailer, it looks really good!

There's a feature on the movie's website where you can "meet your daemon" by answering 20 questions. Mine is a spider called Aspradora. In the movie, everyone has a daemon (demon), but they dwell in the form of an animal outside your body rather than inside, and they're a reflection of yourself rather than an indwelling spirit. Maybe your exo-soul. So maybe the whole "Demons are our pets" thing is a bit troubling.

I love fantasy-adventure flicks like this. And regarding the hidden message behind the story, I don't think I'll lose any sleep over it. Remember The Matrix? We Christians found a hidden message of hope and life and truth in it, because of all the "other-world", eye-opening, truth-revelation scenes it contained. Non- (or anti-) Christians found in it a hidden message of hope and life and truth, because of all the "other-world", eye-opening truth-revelation scenes in it. I have a hunch The Golden Compass will will be owned by both positions, too. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
But I definitely want to see it. Maybe I'll post on it again afterward.
Normally I like spiders, and I had three tarantulas as pets when I was younger. But if I ever see Aspradora around, that sucker's gunna get squashed.