This movie looks interesting to me. I think me and Mary Magdalene will take our daughter to see it this weekend.

-Uncle Jesus

I saw The Golden Compass this weekend, and the HuffPo hatchet job is BS. The film is well-done. Kidman is superbly cast in a cast you couldn't possibly improve. The plot has been brilliantly streamlined; within ten minutes the pace is a brisk jog. I watched a ten-year-old sitting with her parents: she was rapt.

The ending simply comes a few pages before the terrible final revelation in the book. Those discoveries will begin the second film. That way Americans -- with the attention spans of Jack Russells -- will "remember" them.

It was the "top" (not "flop") at the boxoffice the previous weekend, and the audience with me was triple that for Beowulf a few weeks earlier and vastly larger than that for Stardust on its first weekend.

They were not seedy atheist intellectuals either, but apple-cheeked Americans getting a dose of Milton, Blake, and heavy thinking slathered with good ole Merkin violence and no sex. (There ARE children present!)

Highly recommended. Whoever write the smear here should go buy a sequined shirt and try to sing like Jonny Cash. Or whatever his name was.

I just listened to an excellent interview with Pullman on Freethought Radio and earlier in the show they were saying that PUBLIC schools were sending home notes with their students telling parents not to take their kids to see it because the book was written by an atheist. Now, I haven't seen that anywhere else, but if it's true it's terrible. Also, how do you fight that if you're a movie studio? (Although personally, getting a note from the school would make it MORE likely that I'd take my non-existent kids.)

Are the fundies & catolicks writing HP headlines? The other MSM have a different take. Reality is a crutch....

Maybe they all went to see "Redacted".

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Why is Huffington spreading around this misinformation?

The headline should read: "Golden Compass Boffo Box Office Points to Numbah One"

I'm sorry for posting yet again but this just fascinates me for some reason. It's just so..so..obvious.

Though I understand Nichole Kidman was well cast for the part, why is everything about this movie branded has her movie? She had nothing to do with the plot, the direction or the special effects, just a hired puppet.

Branding has gone too far. One cannot read simple news without a tie in to some other product

Not to mention the MAJOR ICE STORM that covered half of America.

Don't believe the critics. I read the books and now I'd like to see how it translates to the screen. Nothing is perfect. That's life. I heard a lot of negative talk about Beowulf also, but today I was told to see it in 3-D. That sounds interesting! It's just entertainment folks, not your inheritance or another declaration of war. Lighten up!

Have you taken your family to the movies lately? It's either that or eat for the week. And the last 3 movies I went to see, SUCKED!!! I'm tired of wasting my hard earned money on shit that Holleywood wants to spew out.

My daughter loved the movie (she's 6). Although some of the scenes were apparently a little frightening for her stuffed-toy giraffe

sit very still.
think about nothing.

if you can do that for 1 minute, your free.

Jesus freaks and religious freaks in general are just really creepy people to begin with....but as a snake oil salesman they are my best customers because they never question anything I sell as long as it has "religion" in the title! I can bag up horse manure and sell it as the "Soil Christ Walked On" and it will sell sight unseen! Man I love America, capitalism and Jesus freaks!

Speaks Lord Buddha:

"He who has eyes can see the sickening sight, Why does not God set his creatures right?

If his wide power no limit can restrain, Why is his hand so rarely spread to bless?

Why are his creatures all condemned to pain? Why does he not to all give happiness?

Why do fraud, lies, and ignorance prevail? Why triumphs falsehood -- truth and justice fail?

I count your God one among the unjust , who made a world in which to shelter wrong." — Bhuridatta Jataka No. 453

Yes--the death of the Authority (God) would be beneficial.

I saw it over the weekend. It was mildly entertaining, but I found most of the wonder of the first book lacking. I see they're planning to make the next two books into films as well. The Subtle Knife may adapt ok to the screen, but I have no idea how they're going to make a movie out of the enormous mess that is the 3rd book.

Having bought the 3rd the day it came out after much anticipation, I can't begin to say how disappointing it was. A rambling, incoherent story that resolved little, had gaping plot holes, characters whose behavior seemed to make no sense compared to the previous books--it was probably the most disappointing series conclusion of my life. The anti-religion message didn't interest me one way or the other--it was just plain dull, with all the wonder of the original story sucked dry.