That was on purpose. You can tell she's a deeply disturbed woman. The baddie in Narnia was a caricature. But we could piss back and forth about this all day. I say my opinion, and others respond. That's the only reason why I'm saying any of this.

Purpose or not, it came off terrible to me and didn't play well.

Of course, you're entitled to your opinion and it's natural to defend a movie that you enjoyed when others don't. But it sounds like you're saying that people consciously decided that they weren't going to like this movie, let alone saying it failed because people are too stupid to appreciate it. That's a stretch to me.

The fact that this movie is being boycotted is a great example.

not so much that they're too stupid, but only seem to like story developments to occur in a certain way, which I find boring after a while. I like to be surprised by how the story unfolds, and not necessarily expect certain things to always happen, or certain story plots to always be there. I like it when some things are left unsaid and we're not told everything that we supposedly need to know.

TGC is essentially a race, shown at different perspectives, but you don't know exactly where the finish line is. I found that very interesting. I'm sorry you didn't.

Ah, of course, the only reason someone couldn't like this movie is because they're stupid, and refuse to accept anything unconventional. Well, I hated the movie, but I love David Lynch, Luis Bunuel, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and dozens of other unconventional filmmakers. I love movies that surprise me and do things that are utterly unexpected. Where do I fit in?

Is it possible that THE GOLDEN COMPASS didn't too well because it didn't have a real ending? It's not like this film was at the same following level as The Fellowship of the Rings, Empire Strikes Back, Pirates of Carib 2, Matrix Reloaded in order to do something like that. Narnia was a complete film. A New Hope was a complete film. Matrix was a complete film. Pirates of Carib 1 was a complete film. You can't just end a movie incomplete. The Golden Compass is just another Eragorn, another incomplete first film.

I'm sorry, but the only real "boycott" in play here has to do with a loss of interest after bad word of mouth.

And that BAD WOM seems to have -A LOT- to do with how bad the film is, and little to do with any supposed "anti-church" nonsense. Mind you, I haven't seen this film so I can't judge on either topic. But let me say that I know people of faith who still wanted to see this even after they heard about the alleged "anti-church" theme. They obviously didn't care about any silly boycott. But after they heard several bad reviews they decided to wait for the DVD or skip it outright. Again, people staying away from TGC seems to have little to do with any religious/anti-religious controversy.


Besides, everyone knows that Boycotts over shit like this never work....

The film did not do poorly because of any boycott. Many films have overcome such pre-release reaction. It did poorly mostly because of the lackluster critical reception, the unfamiliarity of the books compared to LOTR and Narnia and the lackluster response of fans of the books (such as myself).

Yet I very much hope the trilogy is completed on film. The fairly strong foreign box office should help as well as a good audience when it gets to DVD (which I think may happen). The film has a chance to make a modest profit when everything is factored in.

I want the sequels because there is certainly a chance that New Line could learn from the mistakes of this film and also get a new and more appropriate director for the next two films (I hope Weitz doesn't have a contract for all three). The series could get back on the rails. Also, I'm still hoping that there may be a longer and more complete cut of TGC which we will see on DVD.

I hate movies that have endings like the Golden Compass did. It does not bother me when you already know 2 more movies are coming (Like the LOTR trilogy), or the Narnia series.

But pretty much the whole movie set us up to find out about this 'dust' at the north, and we come to find out that we have to wait till the next movie to find out more about the dust.

Those filmmakers aren't exactly raking in the dough, now are they?

Hmm, there really has never been a boycott like this for any movie. If you can describe to me a boycott on a film for being Godless, let me know. The story was not well known, but I think people would've came out more if there wasn't such negative press on something people weren't sure about. But there was, and people didn't want to invest in something they knew little about. If you want to deny this, go right ahead, I couldn't care less.

The opening $25m had everything to do with the boycott. The movie was never going to recover from that low opening. Top that off with I Am Legend opening the next weekend, and people aren't afraid to see a Will Smith movie, and you get a large drop in the second week gross. If it had had a larger opening, there would've been more people there who would've liked it and would spread around better word of mouth. A lot of the big blockbusters out in recent years had terrible word of mouth, but their openings were big enough for that not to really matter.

Life of Brian and The Last Temptation of Christ, just to name two. Both had much bigger boycotts and protests centering around them than The Golden Compass has gotten.

And they really weren't hits, now were they? That's my point.

Another reason I think it's not doing as well as the other fantasy movies is because our hero is a girl this time, and people might not be too excited about that.

I thought your point was that there'd never been a boycott like this. I'm sure the boycott and negative publicity played a role, but I'd imagine quite a few people just didn't want to see it. Not every heavily marketed blockbuster connects.

Life of Brian was a hit relative to expectations, but it was never aimed at being a blockbuster.

But it's not being marketed that way -- it's being marketed as "James Bond goes to Narnia".

Not for a fantasy film like this.

C'mon, you can't be that thick.

Apparently you missed out on all the "Harry Potter is Satanic" email fun. It's died off more recently, but it was hot and heavy around the time of the first film.

Then why bring up the movie?

I've seen the advertisements. They show Daniel Craig running around kicking ass. Also some Polar Bears in armor. Nothing about a female protagonist.

Because you said Of course you've continually backpedaled on that statement since then, but that's what I was responding to.

It wasn't taken as seriously, and those books were far more popular.

Because the world of cinema is overflowing with fantasy films that criticize organized religion (or, rather, adaptations of novels that criticize organized religion, most of which is watered down or outright removed from the films)?

I don't understand your argument. On one hand, you're saying that the boycott is responsible for the low turnout, and in other posts, you say few people are familiar with the story. Which is it?

The boycott for this was not similar to Life of Brian or The Last Temptation of Christ, I'm sorry to tell you. They weren't fantasy films for one. All you did was want to point out how I was wrong, not try and actually see the point I was trying to make. You were just making silly remarks than have nothing to do with the issue here.