Ok, despite that I’ve actually seen this movie and apparently erased most of it from my mind, I still think it’s a fitting end to having finished The Golden Compass over on Mark Reads. (FYI: READ THAT BOOK. HOLY SHIT.) So, as I continue into the second book of the His Dark Materials trilogy, let’s take a moment to find a few things to appreciate about this cinematic version of a fantastic book!
Multiple liveblogs are planned for Mark Watches in the coming two weeks. We’re starting this weekend with The Golden Compass, and then next weekend we’ll do the final episode of Avatar on Saturday and then A Very Potter Sequel on Sunday, in preparation for the GREAT HARRY POTTER WEEKEND OF 2011.
Anyway, on to The Golden Compass!
This liveblog starts at 11:00am PDT on Saturday, July 2nd. Please consult a world clock to determine what time that is for you.
At 11:00am PDT, use the comments below as your own platform for commentary as we start the movie from the menu screen (or on your computer if you you’re using a digital file) right at that time. That’s it!
Hope you can join me for this online party!
mrs coulter has a portrait of herself in her own home.
I always imagined Pan as the voice of reason and sense to Lyra's sense of adventure…. and here he is suggesting to go into the room.
Oh wait, 2 minutes later and he's saying it's a bad idea.
The "kiss me" part seems weird here.
Wow, talk about just dumping the plot out there with no finese at all.
I like how their fire is green.
That means it's Sinister. ;p
Floo Powder.
Ba Sing Se fire crystals.
well, that was done poorly. She already figured it out?
Are they going to get the exposition right on *anything* in this damn movie?
Never in a million years would I randomly go from General Oblation Board to Gobblers. I would have to have someone tell me (much like how it was done in the book.)
Poor Pan…
Why the hell would the Gobblers have a list of the names of the kids???
Lyra could have never escaped that way, with Mrs Coulter knowing immedeatly,
I think it depends on whether you interpret the scene at Bolvangar as the two of them lying even though they both know the truth.
No party at all?
"G, O, B. GOBBLERS!"
That's a pretty quick guess isn't it?
she's a genius O_O
too bad they don't have paper shredders in this world.
Or know how to burn papers in a fire.
How has Mrs Coulter already contacted a search party for Lyra?
Oh, whoa, they showed the dæmons dying. Holy shit.
Wow, lyra is a quick study.
Aw, Ma Costa.
I would like a hug from Ma Costa please.
Why does lyra say "gyptians" that way? As if they're something disgusting.
This music right here is pretty catchy *boogies down*
Bum ba bumbum.
'What are you looking at?' Love you Lyra
Did we really need that 30 second shot of them sailing on a boat?
Roping? Who needs a roping? We've already got our big-ass boat to head North; we were just waiting for Lyra to join us.
🙁 makes me very sad
He makes it sound like they're spying on her because Lord Asriel told them to.
The design of the alethiometer is done really well.
"She and their gobblers took my Billy! I saw it on their weekly newsletter they email out to the subscriber list"
Maybe Coulter let papers lie around somewhere else.She seems quite careless here anyway.
I wish they would stop saying "Golden Compass", like we can't figure out what the title refers to.
Good job spilling the beans, Pantalaimon.
I kind of want to count the number of gyptians who're wearing black eyeliner.
WHY ARE THEY SHOWING BOLVANGAR ALREADY.
"On top of the hour glass…there's a skull"
SYMBOLISM
You can hear the silent DUN DUN DUUUUUNNN! they wanted to put in.
Bolvangar looks so…clinical. Which is good, right?
'They teach us to write the truth. Miss.' Billy Costa FTW
Why do they show who send the insects? That takes out all the thrill.
I'm surprised they have them at all.
Why is Fra Pavel acting like he doesn't know that Mrs. Coulter is Lyra's mother?
I would be confused as fuck had I not read the book.
I WAS confused as fuck when I saw this the first time and hadn't read the book.
Why are Billy and Roger cooperating? I mean…. Not just them, but all the kids. We weren't shown Coulter manipulating them and the children willingly going along, we were shown them being kidnapped forcefully. Why keep up the lie about writing the parents and that they are helping them?
Because when you've got a big group of kids, you've got to keep them busy doing something. Writing to family is as good an activity as any.
Wait, Lord Asriel, what?
"How- ah yes, the master."
Little too nonchalant about that, aren't you Pravel?
Also, Coulter and the Church don't find out about the prophecy until fucking Book 2! PACING MOVIE. PACING!!!!!!
God this movie is SUPER PRETTY.
Its one saving grace….
Plus the good acting. It does have SOME good things going for it, but it was cut up.
Is this turning into a Bond movie?
I wouldn't say no to seeing more Daniel Craig in tight swim shorts. Or in a tux. Or anything really.
I agree with you whole heartily.
Why "Ice Bears"? Why not keep it "Armoured Bears"? There's no good reason to make that change. I mean, it's pretty obvious they they're polar bars, right? Does anyone *not* know where polar bears live?
I don't get this either he isn't just an icebear he is a panserbjørn!
Why wouldn't Asriel have a gun?
Where is my wolf daemon? =(
They are called spy-flyes, not thief-flyes, they would't take the compass.
let's not put anything down to hold that glass down or anything.
The spy-fly scene is a lot less frantic than I imagined t being.
Isn't most of the movie, though?
i would have liked to see Kaisa.
The spy fly works via clockwork. Has anyone read Clockwork?
I own that book but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet, is it good?
Yeah, I liked it.
Wait, the movie's almost halfway over already! Am I the only one who feels this movie's going way too fast for it's own good?
Serafina! Why is she just randomly popping up instead of the whole cloud pine test? Positively I'm really liking the music.
Because they already had Mrs Coulter and Fra Pavel make the prophesy revelation, so the Witch consul is pretty much irrelevant.
Turn into a fish, Pan, come on, do it.
I don't like the Pensieve-esque alethiometer readings.
How can this movie look so good and be so well cast, but be so bad?
Someone involved has magical movie butchering skills.
New line cut it up. It was originally three hours long.
Hi, I'm a beautiful witch, and I'm going to spell everything out for the audience.
"Maybe we shouldn't be doing this" is essentially ALL Pan has said so far in this movie.
And now Serefina's showing up early? and they're already revealing her relationship to Farder Coram? And the way she's talking to Lyra makes it look like SHE'S Lyra's mom?
Movie, get your shit together.
Right, she is hunted down by a mad woman and she just tells everyone her name and uses the alethiometer in the open, just great.
OH MY GOD THE MOST PERFECT LEE SCORESBY IMAGINABLE.
Haha, for "dont' tell anyone", Lyra sure does let a lot of people see that Alethiometer.
Lee Scoresby I love you.
"Friend in a fix." So Lee's stated reason for being in Trollesund is the save Iorek?
IOREK!!!!!
This movie is boring me. I enjoyed the book…. but I just can't keep my focus on the movie. Skips around too much and then massive info dumps all at once.
ARMORED BEAR! ARMORED BEAR! ARMORED BEAR!!!
Wait…. Ice Bear 🙁
I know, right? WTF is the point of that change?
he doesnt have his armor atm so…maybe that?
But they were calling them Ice Bears when they were discussing them back at Jordan College. And even without his armour, he's still an Armoured Bear.
Iorek! (It's a bit strange hearing some of these voices when I'm so used to the audiobooks.)
Lee Scoresby is fantastic.
I LOVE YOU SASSY LYRA
Wait. WAIT. WAIT. WAIT. WAIT. WAIT.
…Am I hallucinating or does Iorek sound like Magneto?
And why is he an "Ice Bear" now?
HE IS GANDALF TOO!!
That's because Iorek is voiced by Ian McKellen.
Fuck New Line for changing his original voice. 🙁
who was his original voice?
Wait…. "I was ever so excited, but now I'm just dissapointed"
Is Lyra talking about meeting an "ice bear", or about watching this movie?
I took a short break to watch a little bit of Beauty and the Beast and now I have no idea what's going on…
Neither does anyone who's been watching the whole time….
Don't worry… there will be a massive info dump in about 5 minutes that will explain about 10 chapters worth of answers.
Not that that will help anyone understand what's going on. It just makes it worse.
Oh my god, armored bear yes please
"And replace it with a doll"
OIC WHAT U DID THER!!11!
major faceplam
The subtlety of their storytelling is truly astounding.
Ummm…just defeated? If any bear who lost a fight had to leave Svalbard there'd be no one left.
"My Name is Iorek, let me tell you my entire backstory rather than letting it come out organically, because it's not like this movie is really trying anyway."
It's weird. The alethiometer works more like exposition/flashback than truth telling. I don't think I like that.
Yeah, it's kind of … idk, just not right, lol. If I ever win the lottery I'm going to spend my billions on making GOOD adaptations of my favorite books.
if there was a way for me to rig the lottery so that you would win I would do it!
Iorek's story is so wrong, he didn't lose. He killed someone!
I'm not sure if I like Sir Ian as Iorek :/ I like the idea! but I'm a bit creeped out by Gandalf's voice coming from a bear
They got a hell of a cast for their shitty script.
It didn't occur to me until I heard it read aloud that Iorek Byrnison wouldn't have a British accent.
I wish they'd left in the bit with him saying he had to work until sunset…It really highlights the whole honor issue.
So can the rest of the movie just be about Lee? His actor's doing the best performance right now.
The actors are fine. It's not their fault that the script is shite.
So Lee's plan to get Iorek out of his indenturement was to wait for a little kid to do it for him.
Can I please marry Lee Scoresby now?
NO WHY IS HE SAYING THAT LYRA WILL BE PUT THROUGH INTERCISION. NO.
I do like the weird self-loathing of Mrs Coulter slapping her own daemon.
The Magisterium room just looks kind of fake?
Why does the monkey just grunt and not talk? He is NOT an animal!
We never hear him talk in the book either. I think he's meant to be more primal and animalistic.
But he is wispering into Coulter's ear in the book, right. Se he too can talk.
I know he *can* talk, but I think that the reason why we never *hear* him is because of Mrs Coulter's primal, id-based MO.
Yeah… I think it's supposed to be some commentary (that someone smarter and more eloquent than I will have to explain) about how bad mrs. coulter has become and how her conscience/soul reflects that.
He never talks in the book. He doesn't have a name either.
It's mysterious.
Pullman has said that he didnt want to think about the Monkey to much cause he was scared of him so thats why he doesnt talk or have name.
That's hilarious!
Ok, I understand that. But actually Pan is the only dæmon who seems to have a personality in the movie.
Mrs. Coutler was meant to test intercission on Lyra? And now she just hit her daemon. What in the actual fuck is going on.
The daemon hitting thing was actually written by Pullman.
I don't remember that. I understand it's probably a self-hating thing but I just find it strange probably because of the whole daemon is like your soul thing.
I actually liked the daemon hitting! I think it shows how seriously fucked up she is
I read that originally, the Magisterium seal said something along the lines of "a church above all others". But then that had to get edited out.
Monkey- "Why do you love her more than me?"
"Sir, it appears that Mrs. Coulter isn't as trustworthy as we thought."
"I agree. That's why I'm glad I sent her off on this extremely important mission."
SCRIPT WRITING EXPERT RIGHT HERE.
ffs this is just wrong
I actually felt sorry for the golden monkey when Mrs Coulter slapped him.
"It'll soon be dark"
Um, so what? You guys are in THE NORTH. The place where you get about 6 HOURS OF SUNLIGHT PER DAY. If you're only travelling during sunny hours, this movie will need like 8 more awkward montages to finish up.
WHY CAN'T I RIDE IOREK.
I know this happens in the book as well, so it's not really a movie complaint thing, just a blurb of mine…. But the first thing that flashed through my mind when I read/saw Lyra mentioning riding Iorek was that she shouldn't do that because it will offend him, based on my readings of Harry Potter and the unicorns' offense at it.
What's up with the random shed in the middle of fucking nowhere?
Something about Iorek's face/head bothers me, and I don't know what it is.
With no subtle build up to this moment, this scene is NOT TENSE AT ALL.
ARGH! My DVD just skipped forward several scenes!
it hates you for making it play this movie and now it just wants to get this over with
Clearly.
No daemon? Meh. No gasp out loud from me this time.