At about 1:00 there is blatant green screen outside the window.

The ending was cut... but it wasn't due to running time.

Those of you who've read the book know why it was cut.

The movie sucked!
they could cut or add more scenes and it would still be terrible.
I never read the book.
but I've seen better fantasy/adventure films than this.

the film just doesnt do the book any justice whatso ever

those of you who didn't read it and hate it:

stfu and read moar


those of you who DID read it and didn't like it:


i HIIIIIIIGHLY doubt you could do a better job.

tragic british storytelling + atheist/agnostic storylines should DO NOT WORK WELL AT ALL in american cinema. this movie shouldn't even exist if not for Weitz's ingenius directing

the movie was absolutely horrible. i know i couldn't make one but still it was almost as horrible as eragon.
the completely ruined it. part of the movie was out of order. the twisted the time and molded it how they wanted it to be. i doubt that Philip helped its making. they changed it around so people did things a that others did in the book. the also cut off the ending. and in the cut ending scene they still missed part of it. the movie was a disgrace to th book. i hope the subtle knife is directed by some one better.

No, I'm sorry. I've read the book. I hated the movie.

No, that isn't exactly fair. I *almost* liked the movie, which is why I hated it. There was a good movie in there somewhere and Weitz screwed it up. It was beautiful, it was well acted, the adaptation was insane. My husband didn't read the book, he loves British storytelling and good dark tales and he didn't know WTF was going on at all. I wanted him to judge it on his own and he hated it, too.

I agree, Tim G., with why the ending was cut. There is a great quote from Weitz explaining why he decided to water down the movie that sums my feelings up. He wanted this movie to succeed so he could make the next two. That was his only goal in making this movie. He promises that if the other two get made, he won't water them down even a bit, and basically considers what he did to this movie a sacrifice for the good of getting the others made. And, like Tim says, if you know the ending of the book, and you've read Weitz's explanations, you now know why the ending was cut. Running time had very little to do with it. This was all about sparing the audience until he knew how much they could handle.

That is not genius film making. That's sacrificing art for your greater goals. I loved About a Boy, but I can't forgive that.

I sat there in the cinema just saying over and over
"that is not the effing ending"
i was so pissed off
the kid who played roger annoyed me no end, i couldnt wait to see him die...instead i have to watch him fly to safety.
the books are amazing...i love them more each time i read them
that film was just a repeat of 'a series of unfortunate events' and 'harry potter' which i also love and they totally wrecked. if they (meaning the film industry in general) dare to that to 'the darren shan saga' or 'twilight' i will have to kill somebody.
they took an amazing book with controversial but amazing ideas and twisted and molded it to fit a film that would comply both to the effing BIBLE and to being a PG.
it was never actually going to work....i can but hope fo the next film...the subtle knife is my favourite of the series. I wonder whats going to happen at the very end of the amber spyglass when will and lyra kill 'god'. The church wont like that very much....I suppose they will just let him fly away in his little crystal bubble and continue to spout nonsence to gullable people.

the ending had no death, no opening in the sky, no dramatic kiss and no screaming. and therefore was NOT an ending.

OK, so I admire them for trying, but let's face it-it was as nearly as bad as Eragon. It makes me wanna grow up and be a producer so that I can make this movie over again! Ahh!

Those who say that this book and series is all about killing "god", READ!!! You have no right to say anything if all you've heard is rumors and all you've seen is the movie. I'm telling you, Pullman has an amazing mind, and it is FICTION!!! People, use English class lessons and look for symbolism.

Oh, and by the way, I heard that this movie didn't impress the producers, so they weren't making anymore, and just so you know, I am a devout Christian, but not everything is out to get religion.

I also want to say that I agree with Caz and Bluesabriel. Please excuse me venting to random people.

i can only hope Weitz doesnt get the shaft for proclaiming that the next two wouldnt be watered down. Woulda made a good secret.

I love the book 'Northern Lights' which it is based on but it is very sad how at the end Roger is killed by Lord Asriel so he can go through to another world. How selfish. I love The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass better though. The Subtle Knife is my favourite. Will is so cool. It is strange how Lyra and Will fall in love at the end of the series. The mulefa are strange too.

when i started watching the movie i though 'Wow! this is great! they're really doing the book justice!' as soon as they entered the north my thoughts changed COMPLETLY. it was totaly screwed up! they switched Svalbard and Bolvangar's places and cut off the ending, and i (and other people) know why they cut off the ending. it was certainly NOT due to the running time cause i've watched way longer movies. they deleted the ending because Lord Asriel killed Roger.

this movie was as bad as Eragon. ok, maybe not as bad, but still pretty close. i hope they make the Subtle knife and the Amber Spyglass way better, cause they deserve it!

I thought the movie was pretty good. Considering that they had to make it so that some people wouldn't be too offended, it wasn't bad at all. Besides, the director says they'll be much less compromising for the next two. I know it's unlikely that anyone will agree with me, but I think we should cut these people some slack--the producer tried to get this made for us, the readers, for ten YEARS before finding someone who'd market it! I agree that they shouldn't have mixed up Bolvangar and Svalbard, and there are some scenes that DEFINITELY should have been included, but other than that they did pretty well. Philip Pullman helped work on the movie with them, and he even suggested some of the scenes, so I'm good with it.

i hated the movie, for most reasons that everyone else is saying.

i've read the books more than once ( and just finished reading them again ) and it's not just that they cut off the last like, what, six chapters of the book? and it's not that they screwed up the timeline, screwed up who did what, omitted important scenes... it wasn't even that they didn't get ANYTHING but MOST of the names right.

it was the fact that they took a book with a good basic plot and ripped it to shreds. i don't remember - did they EVER talk about DUST in the movie the way it's meant in the book?

did they ever talk about sin?

did they even realize that the book wasn't about killing the creator, it was about killing an angel who became selfish and CALLED himself the creator?

people like something to be shocked and offended at. if they had read the books at all, or even just that small part about who the authority is, they would realize that philip pullman wasn't being athiestic or denouncing god, but making a play on angels. the creator, our GOD, was the one they referred to as "the creator, who may or may not still be alive" not the authority, who was the very first angel ever.



bah.
/rant.

I think that the movie was..."kind of" okay. I read an article on it ( the same production team of Lord of the Rings did this movie) and the studio said this was their most expensive movie yet. If many people all over the world share this threads' sentiments....

That would freakin' suck.

But, I do have to agree that I was sitting there lost at the end, too. I totally ruined the book for the people around me. I just blurted out *SPOILER AHEAD* , "Why's Roger not dead?" But, what are you going to do? Hopefully the next one will be better. As a personal thing, I do like Harry Potter (even the movies because of the sick music), but, and I know I'm going to get jumped for this, I don't like Twilight. I'm not even going to fully explain why, but, I am entitled to my opinion, and I didn't like it the same reason that I didn't really appreciate The Golden Compass. I respect all people who like Twilight, no bashing here, I just thought it was too....choppy.

I think Carleigh has the right idea.
I've been doing post-prod dialogue editing for almost two decades and I am sick of people trashing movies. Even the worst films usually have the producer/director's life-savings tied up in them, plus years of work, risk and effort. Put yourself in their shoes for a change dangit.

To say that you didn't like it, or that it might have been better in various ways is okay, but to totally trash it is like trashing years of somebody's life!!! (These people have wives and husbands and kids!! Show some humanity! They didn't commit a crime!)

I saw the movie first as it was released on Directv, so I realized that scenes were missing etc. Allowing for that, I loved what I saw; the story, the acting, the visual and sound FX, the score...it was all great. I just got through reading all three books in a row and I can't wait for the next two films to be made.

Going the "family movie" route with the promotion would have helped "Golden's" USA box-office for sure. It's either that, or cramming the ads with sex, perversion, hatred, murder, drugs and misery. In Hollywood, those are the only ingredients in movies that the reviewers will consider "true art." How 'bout we trash them for a change instead of the films?

I liked the way the movie started, but was certainly disappointed with the second half of it for the same reasons everybody else here is posting. And I rather thought that...if you think about it...DUST is effectively like god, and that never gets destroyed, thought they do save it at the end of TAS

I loved the movie when it came out. I was so ecstatic it was made in the first place, and then my breath was taken away at how well the world was realized on screen, and how well it was cast.

You cant really whine about how a book is truncated to make it into a movie. The Golden Compass is phenomenally adapted for a book to movie. I've seen fantastic books raped on screen - this isnt one of them. They were gloriously true to the book, and the changes they made only served to make the premis clearer in the shorter format.

I did not agree with some of the scenes they took out. I hated that they left out Roger's death. I wanted it to properly lead into a second movie. I wanted more.

I still desperately want the sequel to be made. I want to see the underworld on screen. Make me more! And do it as well as the first!

I have just written an mini-thesis on the transition from the novel to the film if anyone is interested - coming from the POV and training of a student of English Literature and Film Studies and Production, as well as being someone who is very passionate about these books and filmmaking in general, so not just having a rant!

Ok, so it's not 'nice' to bash a movie, but if you put yourself out there and take on a project of that magnitude, knowing the fan base that's behind it, you are well aware of what you're letting yourself in for - and let's be honest, the script alone was awful. Fun movie for little kids, but I think we were all hoping for New Line to give us another LOTR (especially given TGC's crazy budget), and that's just not what we got.