What I've Been up to 3

I spent most of MOnday watching Anne of Green Gables on youtube. They actually have the whole of the first two films at 10 min clips. I remember we recorded it long ago on VCR and thinking it was hilarious to watch. After reading the books written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, I was enthralled.

Went on Wed to watch The Golden Compass as planned. It's actually based on a trilogy of books (aren't all movies nowadays?) called His Dark Materials, written by this chap called Phillip Pullman. The first book titled The Northern Lights is what the movie is based on. I'd read the book about 2 years ago and had forgotten most of what the story was about, but the trailer looked fairly interesting, so I expected the movie to be pretty good.


Maybe it was the hype, or maybe I'd thought too highly of the trailer, but, just as with Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, I was disappointed. The movie was ok, with a lot of detail being put into the alternate world in which people have daemons, the graphics were good, the fight scenes were well shot, with the daemons' disintegration into dust making up for the lack of blood, big name actors and actresses were present, but I couldn't help feeling the lack of the 'wow' factor.

It didn't help that whenever Lyra (the main character) travelled on the armoured bear, it looked impressive from the front, but when the camera swiveled to a rear view, it just looked funny. Think Winne-the-pooh loping along on four legs. I suppose its not their fault polar bears look less impressive from the rear.


Much has been made of the fact that Philip Pullman is an outspoken atheist and that he has purportedly written the books 'to undermine the basis of Christian belief'. So much so, that emails have been circulated warning people against this movie, and how it could in some way, subversively turn people against God. I admit to feeling a little uncomfortable when I read the books, that's how obvious the allegory is. But I personally think the movie, if anything, should be watched and discussed to show how different the 'god' in Pullman's universe differs from the God I believe in. For example, the 'authority' in the film (the Magisterium) are seen as suppressing freedom because they 'exist to stop people from doing things that could harm themselves'. Looking at the state of affairs today, it is obvious that the God of this universe gave us the capability to choose for ourselves what to do/believe in, and did not force us to blindly obey him.

Anyway, before I get too carried away, the movie left me slightly unsatisfied, probably because the final fight scene was not as epic as I'd pictured it to be. I liked the Ian Mckellen voiceover of Iorek Brynison though.


Much better in my opinion was Stardust, which I'd watched earlier. We also watched Hitman that same night before the Golden Compass. Despite both of us having heard of the game, Jack and I spent the hour or so before TGC sitting over hot chocolate trying to make sense of Hitman. The fight scenes were so-so, but we felt an older Hitman, with a deeper voice (!) would have carried the character off better. And he should have showed even less emotion..,especially with the girl.

Am blogging from Dubai International Airport, where I've just visited the restaurant that allows passengers with a stopover time of over 5 hours a free meal. Brilliant.


Malaysia beckons. Another 10-12 hours...