His Dark Materials: The Film's Failure And What Could Have Been

So the inevitable happened for a young adult (but not really) sci-fi/fantasy series: It was adapted into a big-budget movie. New Line Cinema, the studio famous for adapting The Lord of the Rings into three of the most successful and best fantasy adaptations ever, stepped up to the challenge of turning a book series with themes sure to enrage the Catholic Church (and the church definitely was not pleased) into a bankable family film. The first thing I want to say is that New Line made sure that people remembered that they were the ones who gave us Lord of the Rings, and that we could trust that this film would be the beginning of the next great fantasy epic. All one has to do is watch the first trailer:



I was intrigued by this, but not enough to ever consider going to see the film in theaters. However, I started hearing positive buzz about the movie, with a lot of praise given to the book series it was based on, and the second trailer is what sold me (I will put it up later in the post to call attention to one of my biggest gripes with the film).

I made sure to at least have the first book read by the time I saw the movie, and I found myself enjoying the series (I was about 30 pages into The Amber Spyglass when I saw the film). I was ready for what should have been one of the best films of the year. Then it wasn't.

I don't know why I got myself so excited for a book adaptation, because I know that films that rival their written source material in quality are extremely rare (they do exist, but even The Prestige film had its fair share of differences from the book). But New Line promised that I would be seeing the next LOTR. Strangely, one of the main reasons the film didn't work is exactly why the Rings films did work; length. But I'll start by going over what worked.

The acting, effects, and set design were all great. With a budget of $180 million, the effects better be pretty good, and they are. The CGI daemons are seamlessly integrated into the environments. They look like real animals and have faces that allow for strong emotive expressions. Daemons act as their humans mirrors; if someone feels anxious but tries not to show it, that emotion manifests in the daemon's actions and expressions. The zeppelins, Lee Scoresby's airship, and the instruments at Bolvangar look great, and the Victorian steampunk costumes and sets are beautiful. The large budget also went toward hiring A-list talent like Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulter, Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel, and Ian McKellan as Iorek Byrnison. Personally, I thought that McKellan was a poor choice for Iorek, who gave him a Shakespearean quality that I found ill-fitting for the character. But Craig, Kidman, Sam Elliot, and Eva Green were all great in their roles, even when they had to deal with some clunky and rushed dialogue (Green suffered the worst from this; her character of Serafina Pekkala had a relatively small role in the first book, so to justify casting Green in the role, they gave her an extra scene in the middle that worked much better in the book when Pekkala was being referenced, as opposed to present). But the shining star of the cast was definitely Dakota Blue Richards, who played Lyra. This was Richards' first feature film, and she seems to have been perfectly cast. Richards expertly captures Lyra's feistyness and resourcefulness, and is able to make us adore her even when she is acting like a spoiled brat.

Sadly, the great cast and amazing effects could not carry the film that was weighed down by writing. The movie clocked in at about 2 hours, which was sadly too short to capture the spirit of this book. Running time is almost always a factor in why films cannot live up to the books they are adapted from, since the first thing that usually gets cut is character development. The Golden Compass is no different. Many of the intricacies of the plot were forced to happen quickly, before we could care about the characters involved. Iorek and Lyra barely had any time together before they were trusted companions, and its a wonder that Lyra went to live with Mrs. Coulter in the first place. While she came off as a likable role model for Lyra at their first meeting at Jordan College, every interaction after that seemed strained. There was no time to build up Coulter's mounting creepiness. Instead, she became off-putting right away.

The Magisterium also loses some of its menace due to the short run time. Instead of a sinister, behind-the-scenes organization, it was changed into an over-the-top villainous organization. People would be fools to think that this organization (which is much more Big Brother than church in the film, though one doesn't have to dig too deep to see how the film Magisterium could be linked to the church) is here to help them. The movie needed at least another half an hour, though I think that it needed three hours to be the best film it could be. However, three hour movies are not exactly family friendly (though the Harry Potter films could probably get away with it). Although, I'm not quite sure that His Dark Materials is family friendly.

But going back to length, here, in my opinion, is the worst of the movie's sins: The ending. The film ends about three chapters short of the book's ending. The film ends happily, with Lyra and Roger reunited and planning on going to see Lord Asriel, who they think will make sense of all their adventures. This ending gives us almost no reason to see the next movie except to learn what the hell Dust is, which doesn't seem like it could fill an entire movie (which it doesn't). Here's how the book ends: They go to see Asriel, near the North Pole. After giving some explanation of Dust to Lyra, he kidnaps Roger and plans to cut his daemon away. The energy released will allow Lord Asriel to create a gateway between parallel universes. Lyra realizes what is happening, chases after Lord Asriel, and witnesses her father (Asriel) cut away the soul of her best friend. The shock causes Roger to pass out and fall into a crevasse. Before Asriel departs through the gateway, Lyra watches as he and Mrs. Coulter (her mother) reunite for the first time in years, and Lyra swears that she will do everything in her power to stop her parents, and she follows her father through the gateway. Now that is an ending that will bring the audiences back for film number two!

The craziest part is that the book's ending was filmed! Just look at the second trailer:



Lyra's line about how, "I'll never be yours!" is what sold me on the movie. The obvious guess is that New Line didn't want their family movie to end with the death of a child, which doesn't make sense, since the movie has a dark undertone throughout. Footage from and references to the "real" ending appears in much of the promotional materials, including the video game (the scene where Lyra shows up showed up on YouTube).

I formulated these ideas immediately after seeing the movie, but I soon learned that my ideas were popular ones. A few weeks later, I found this article from New York Magazine saying essentially what I said. I am including it because it talks about the content of the original scripts for the film that were apparently amazing.

As usual, it is too bad that film studios sacrifice quality for business, especially since increased quality can often lead to better box office receipts. I would love to see the film with the book's ending (which director Chris Weitz and many of the actors agree with), but it seems like we will be stuck with this mediocre adaptation for the time being.

Up next: Getting LOST...