I've read the book by Phillip Pullman, and while I'm not a fan of the series, I thought it was an alright book. Still, the movie looked impressive and that's why I read the book in the first place.
After Lord of the Rings came out, everyone has been wanting to make the next big fantasy film. Some have actually succeeded, like Pan's Labyrinth and The Chronicles of Narnia. Others have failed miserably, like Eragon. So is this the next fantasy film or is it another failure disappointment? Everything from the design, clothing, the visual effects, everything visually was great. They made the world come to life. The actors are actually great. Daniel Craig in the small bit of the film that he's in. Sam Elliot is amazing and makes the film better whenever he's on screen. Ian McKellen, Ian McShane, Nicole Kidman, they were all great.
And the polar bears were amazing. I hope they make like some sort of spin-off of the film where we go into the mythology of these polar bears because they were easily the best done.
But the problem is Chris Weitz has no idea how to treat this material and how to get this on screen. And you can just tell they wanted to make another Lord of the Rings so they even have Christopher Lee show up for less than a minute and have him never show up ever again.
The film has no soul. You never get to know these characters, they're motives, what's the point of this scene or this scene, what's the point of this whole film. And the reason is they are always going from one place to another and not having anytime to get used to that place. Like one critic said, it felt like watching a cliff notes version of the film and it was still a two hour film.
You're waiting for this incredible climactic scene at the end of the film. Instead all you get is a battle of no real significance to the story and they just left it hanging for the next film, which will probably not happen now. And many people who loved the book will hate the ending because they cut it out. There was no ending at all.
Overall, this is not a bad movie, but it isn't a great one either. I think if Weitz had taken the time to explore this material and get it right on screen, we would have ended up with a great fantasy piece. Unfortunately we didn't get that. I was gonna give this a five but Sam Elliot lit up the screen so I'm gonna give this a six. Again, not a bad film, but I'll probably forget about it in a week.
After Lord of the Rings came out, everyone has been wanting to make the next big fantasy film. Some have actually succeeded, like Pan's Labyrinth and The Chronicles of Narnia. Others have failed miserably, like Eragon. So is this the next fantasy film or is it another failure disappointment? Everything from the design, clothing, the visual effects, everything visually was great. They made the world come to life. The actors are actually great. Daniel Craig in the small bit of the film that he's in. Sam Elliot is amazing and makes the film better whenever he's on screen. Ian McKellen, Ian McShane, Nicole Kidman, they were all great.
And the polar bears were amazing. I hope they make like some sort of spin-off of the film where we go into the mythology of these polar bears because they were easily the best done.
But the problem is Chris Weitz has no idea how to treat this material and how to get this on screen. And you can just tell they wanted to make another Lord of the Rings so they even have Christopher Lee show up for less than a minute and have him never show up ever again.
The film has no soul. You never get to know these characters, they're motives, what's the point of this scene or this scene, what's the point of this whole film. And the reason is they are always going from one place to another and not having anytime to get used to that place. Like one critic said, it felt like watching a cliff notes version of the film and it was still a two hour film.
You're waiting for this incredible climactic scene at the end of the film. Instead all you get is a battle of no real significance to the story and they just left it hanging for the next film, which will probably not happen now. And many people who loved the book will hate the ending because they cut it out. There was no ending at all.
Overall, this is not a bad movie, but it isn't a great one either. I think if Weitz had taken the time to explore this material and get it right on screen, we would have ended up with a great fantasy piece. Unfortunately we didn't get that. I was gonna give this a five but Sam Elliot lit up the screen so I'm gonna give this a six. Again, not a bad film, but I'll probably forget about it in a week.