Me gusta leer y ver la tele

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Follow the Alethiometer

The controversial The Golden Compass opened last Friday to a $26 million box office, and there I was (as I had already warned you), ready to see it and report back to you, guys. I thought the movie was going to be disappointing because I had just read the novel, and everybody knows the books are usually better than the films. Also, TGC had scored a 45% on Rotten Tomatoes, so I was wary, to say the least. But the truth is that I enjoyed it. It wasn't great, but I thought it was quite a faithful adaptation of the source material, with neat effects, cool eye candy, and the ever gorgeous Nicole Kidman.

The "controversial" issues the book presents are somewhat diluted and toned down in the movie, something I had already heard director Chris Weitz say, so that didn't surprise me. The movie closely follows the story in the book, and other than chronologically changing a couple of events and altering the actions of a couple of characters, it's basically the same. There's fantasy, there's cool creatures, there's villains, and there's a kid on a quest to save the world. It's not great (and certainly not as compelling as the book), but it's entertaining.

There were two things I didn't like, though: the very beginning and the very end. Right at the beginning we get a narrated introduction to the world we're about to experience… only to have each and every single thing mentioned there shown to us later in the film. One of the basic rules of storytelling is "don't tell if you can show". And they do show later, so why did they tell me first? And then, at the very end, the movie is over before the book is! When I was watching the movie, I thought "Man, this looks like this could be the final scene in the movie. If I hadn't read the book and knew there's one more scene coming, I would think this is indeed the end". And then the movie was over, and that last scene in the book, a scene that gives closure to part of the story and sets up the stage for the second book was nowhere to be found. I was puzzled, since it made no sense not to have the final scene, because it's a very effective cliffhanger that makes you gasp and leaves you in shock. Well, when I got back home I read that they did shoot that last scene, but it didn't test well with audiences, so they just removed it. However, the director says he hopes he can have it at the very beginning of the second movie (if this first one does well enough to grant a sequel, that is). Does he think audiences will like it better at the beginning of a film instead of at the end? Maybe so. Will it be included on the DVD as an alternate ending? Perhaps. I still don't think it was a wise decision, because the movie now just stops instead of ending. But what do I know?

Anyway, I would recommend reading the book instead of seeing the movie, but if you want to know what the story is about but only want to spend a couple of hours finding out, then by all means go see the movie. Or read the book and then go see the movie. By the time they make a movie out of The Subtle Knife, you will have read the whole trilogy!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

La verdad es que no tiene mucho sentido que hayan hecho eso de hacer una sinopsis de la película al principio, y el hecho de eliminar la escena final. Porque la audiencia ha reaccionado mal ante ella. Lo que habría que hacer entonces es reescribirla o rodarla otra vez, o lo que sea. Eliminarla es una chapuza.

Aunque menos sentido tiene aún el que yo opine del tema sin haber leído el libro ni visto la película, claro. ;)

Mario Alba said...

Hahahaha. No te preocupes. La verdad es que basta con tener un par de dedos de frente para darse cuenta de que sí es una chapucilla. Menos mal que no hacen pruebas de audiencia con las novelas cuando las publican. ¿Te imaginas qué horrible sería?

Nash said...

Que quereis que os diga, yo creo que a más de un libro, "Clones" por ejemplo, le deberian haber hecho una prueba de audiencia y despues quemar al libro con el escritor dentro.

Mario Alba said...

Hahaha. No lo he leído, pero sí que es verdad que alguna que otra novelilla no hubiera pasado nada si jamás se hubiera publicado.

Anonymous said...

¿Clones? ... ¿De quién es? ... ¿De qué va (aparte de los clones, claro)?

Mario Alba said...

Es de unos republicanos que crean un ejército de clones para combatir a los separatistas liderados por el Conde Drácula, o algo así. Creo.

Nash said...

jajaajja no, va de eso es mucho peor halagan en serio mejor no te lo cuento cada vez que recuerdo ese libro....prefiero que me metan agujas incandescentes en los ojos, o pillarme los huevos con una puerta acorazada de un banco o volver a recordarlo....como me lo regalaron lo tuve que leer. Como cierto libro de mundo disco. Que sacrificado soy.

Mario Alba said...

"Como cierto libro de MundoDisco"

Sin comentarios...

Anonymous said...

Veeeengaaaa. Que tengo ganas de enterarme... Al menos decidme el nombre del autor.... :(

Mario Alba said...

Como Nacho no se arranca y yo no lo sé, he mirado por Amazon, pero no encuentro nada. A saber si el libro se llama Clones en versión original, o es un invento de los traductores...

Nash said...

El libro lo tengo en casa y hasta el jueves no podre deciros el autor, pero es curiso que no aparezca ni en amazon ni en cyberdark.net, la mejor pagina web de libros de CiFi en español. Pero si quieres Halagan yo te dejo el libro.

Anonymous said...

Hombre, querer, querer... Es más que nada inocente curiosidad... Vamos, ¡que no me lo dejes, por favor!