I have found my new mission in life…I must build the authentic beer brewing Bender and not even god himself will stop me!

Today marks the release of a movie I’ve been waiting several years for, The Golden Compass. The initial response, ala the Tomato Meter isn’t so great; a 44% as I am writing these words. Now I don’t have time to examine all 120+ reviews that Rotten Tomato is referencing here, but I am in the habit of reading the full reviews from those reviewers I’ve come to trust over the years. In this case, Roger Ebert and Kenneth Turan. Normally I’d check A.O. Scott’s review as well, but the only review up on the NY Times right now is from Manohla Dargis (who did write a favorable review, nonetheless). Here I think, is one of the more notable excerpts from Ebert’s review:

As a visual experience, it is superb. As an escapist fantasy, it is challenging. Teenagers may be absorbed and younger children may be captivated; some kids in between may be a little conflicted, because its implications are murky.

They weren’t murky in the original 1995 novel, part of the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, a best seller in Britain, less so here.

The “murkiness” that Ebert talks about comes from the fairly well known fact that, instead of portraying the Magisterium (the large, not so nice, group at the heart of all the badness going on) as part of The Church (yes, those caps are intentional), it is represented as a governmental agency, akin to Big Brother.

But as Turan points out, this change is of particular importance to this story:

…though the Magisterium’s representatives dress like religious functionaries, all references to church connections have been removed.

Still, though it takes some doing, “The Golden Compass” retains enough tastes and traces of the original to fascinate and involve viewers. This is especially important because, as opposed to, for instance, “The Lord of the Rings” or even the Harry Potter books, this is a noticeably cool story, one whose most memorable connections are intellectual rather than emotional.

What I noticed, too, about both of these reviews is that it appears both Ebert and Turan had actually read the books. I generally try and judge an adaptation apart from its source material. Books and movies just work in different ways. A good example, I think, is another seminal fantasy series, The Lord of the Rings. The movies work so well because they focus on the action of the books, but anyone whose read them will tell you that the fights and battles (even the really BIG ones) are treated as secondary by Tolkien, almost as if they were mere plot devices required by the narrative, but not necessarily important. In the film, for instance, it takes Frodo about 2 minutes to decide to leave the Shire, in the book it takes, literally, months. That just wouldn’t play on the big screen. In regards to this film, though, I think that there must be some implicit connection the two versions.

So does this change work for the film?

That’s the major question, for me, as I anticipate seeing it. As I said, it appears that both Turan and Ebert read the books, and give glowing reviews to the movie, even with this much ballyhooed change. What seems interesting to me, from my brief perusal of the various reviews, is that those who give the movie a negative review seem to have not read the books. I could certainly be mis-categorizing things here. Surely there are bad reviews written by people who read (and, no doubt, even loved) the books.

Stephanie Zacharek at Salon seems to have read the books, though I’m not sure how well. Her main contention is that the movie is stilted, episodic and too grand for director Paul Weitz to handle. She says that the characters are always “trekking here and back again” though the audience hardly knows why, and that “nothing that happens in “The Golden Compass” is particularly well dramatized, and because Weitz has tried to cram in so many details and plot machinations, there’s never any time for relationships to develop between characters.” Well, unfortunately, that’s just how the book works too. At a few points in her review Zacharek bemoans the loss of the “magic” of the book. But the first book is just the first act of a longer work. People (especially Lyra) really are just running from here to there as the narrative unfolds and the characters are trying to make sense of it. In that regard, then, it seems that Weitz has been faithful to the source material (of course, I haven’t seen the movie yet so I could be wrong).

More importantly, though, even I who whole heartedly endorse the books on every level, can admit that Lyra, as a character, has no growth until the last book. She works as more of a device in this first installment. The most important device, no doubt, but one used mainly so that Pullman can get to the philosophical ideas he’s working towards. It’s not until the final act of the story do the character’s actually engage with these intellectual ideas in very real ways, and that’s precisely when the characters begin to come alive.

When it comes down to it. I’m pretty excited to see the film. The initial news that the Magisterium would be so completely changed in the film, obviously, made me dubious. And the so-so reviews I think can be understood more as a (still to this day) lack of appreciation for fantasy work than a real disregard for the film itself. Say what you will about Rings or Narnia or Potter, there still exists a definite resistance against fantasy as a viable form of entertainment, let alone art. More than anything, the Ebert and Turan reviews give me hope that I, who also read and loved the books, will connect with the film.

The long awaited 12th, and final, installment in the Wheel of Time series is on its way. There was, as you may know a “small” roadblock on the path to its publication. I had previously heard rumors that Steven Brust, he of Jhereg fame, would be finishing up the final pieces of Rand and company’s adventures…that just goes to show how much you can trust bookstore gossip.

It was announced yesterday that Brandon Sanderson will be picking up where RJ left off.

I know what you’re thinking, “who?”

I’m not even sure who this guy is and I read fantasy AND I’ve worked in a bookstore for six years…

Apparently he has a blog, which I will be frequenting often over the next two years so that I can adequately judge and ridicule him in his effort to step into some very formidable shoes. Of course, his blog looks much better than this one…but does he have sporadically uploaded webcomics of middling achievement…I THINK NOT!

So Dragonmount says that the proposed time of publication is now 2009. Gives me plenty of time to actually read Sanderson’s books so as to judge him even more harshly.

And I don’t want anyone to think that my instant dislike of Brandon Sanderson is actually fueled by jealousy, oh no! Look, I could have finished the Wheel of Time series, but I turned it down…seriously, I told them that I just didn’t think it was the right “venture” for me at this time in my career. So what do they do? Go out and get a writer who has actually published something…so predictable.

And because Killian is unable to find the ranking page on the Webcomic List, I figured I’d just rub it in a little.

Exsulis

This was completed last Thursday, and seems to have finally gone up today… all in all I was surprised by the cancellation of the series, but the reasons for the cancellation are, well, not evident at this time. However, I was lucky enough to be able to put together one final strip in order to say goodbye to all of the wonderful readers who stuck it out and came back week after week for the 30+ installments. To all that have been reading the series and allowed me, April, Wednesday and even our son, Salem, to be a part of your lives - and to all of those who enjoyed the strips, thank you, very, very much.

So here it is, the final installment of Megalo Life - for Trickster Online Revolution.

And so 2007 closes today, and with it this weekly webcomic serial. Thank you again to everyone who showed their support, if you would like to leave comments for the series itself, please do so in the actual comments section for the Megalo Life series at the bottom of the URL link as I will be reading them there.

See you all next year!

–Aleister