The Golden Compass - 3/5
Leaving aside the rather amusing irony of this (however toned down) attack on religion being marketed as a Christmas film, it certainly is (presumably because its got lots of snow in it). New Line are also clearly marketing it as the new Lord of the Rings, which is a strategy that does the film a huge dis-service as it only highlights its inadequacies. It falls short for two main reasons - firstly, the source material is not as good or as well loved. In my personal opinion, Philip Pulman's Northern Lights triology are slightly over-rated - they're good enough, but not deserving of the fuss and adulation they receive. There's probably one-and-a-half good books in there - the first half of the first novel works so hard at creating its world that the narrative almost doesn't cope and the third novel is almost drowned by the ideas it has to carry. They also create an interesting dilema for the film-makers as to what audience to aim the film at, because the supposed children's book probably have far more fans amongst adults than children. The PG certificate suggests they're going for the younger market, which may prove a mistake.
The second reason that The Golden Compass falls some way short of The Rings is that, where Peter Jackson had the courage to make some bold cuts and depart from the text quite significantly at times, Chris Weitz (American Pie, About A Boy) sticks fairly rigidly to the story and rushes through the events in order to bring it in in a child-friendly running time. Where Jackson created a vibrant and lively world you could believe in, Weitz presents one that seems to have some good idea going into the visuals, but comes across as rather flat and lifeless. Thus the film is better compared to the early Potters or Narnia - a fairly faithful adaptation, but rather uninspired. Much has been made of the toning down of the anti-religious stance, but when the heads of the Magisterium (the bad guys) look rather like senior catholic officials and their regional office looks like an Eastern Orthodox Church, its hard to argue that's its been taken out.
Of the human element, fans will be relieved to hear that Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra does a creditable job. Its the adults who fare much worse, lacking space for any sort of characterisation - Daniel Craig comes off particularly badly with no room to do anything much, his Casino Royale co-star Eva Green might as well not be there. Only Nicole Kidman (as Mrs Coulter) and Sam Elliott (as the aeronaut Lee Scoresby) really manage a performance worthy of the name. In fact, most the adults are out performed by the two Ians - McKellen and McShane, who appear only in voice as the two fighting polar bears.
In fact the fight of the bears is one of the few real highlights of the film, along with the final battle on the polar snow, but even these fall a long way short of the excitement and grandeur of even the smaller Rings action moments. It's not a bad film, but it will disappoint fans and fail to inspire those unfamiliar with the books.
On the other hand, there's
Fred Claus - 2/5
A real Christmas film - its about Santa's disreputable brother, after all. The first relief is that its not dreadful - in fact, its probably the best actual Christmas film since Elf, but that's not really saying much. It's like saying Sven is the best England manager of the past decade - probably true, but rather depressing. The thing is given the talent at work here, it should be much better. Paul Giamatti should be an inspired Santa, Vince Vaughn is always watchable, Kevin Spacey as the villain should be a good move and director David Dobkin, whilst never great has produced some good comedy moments with the likes of Wedding Crashers.
To be fair it has some funny moments - the Sibling Anonymous meeting with Frank Stallone, Roger Clinton and Stephen Baldwin all cameoing is an inspired hoot. There's the odd good line (unfortunately, mostly in the trailer) and Vaughn does a creditable job of making it watchable. There's also a nice in-joke of having the man who played Lex Luther secretly longing for a Superman cape. That aside, though, its just plain lazy - the effects, especially with the elves, look cheap and step backwards from most things in the past five years and most of the cast seem to be stumbling half-heartedly towards a Christmas bonus, before they can go back to making real movies.
Watchable, if you're desperate, but not one to rush out and see.
No comments:
Post a Comment