Target audience (Alicia) seems to like it. For my part, some bits are a little theatrical (Jordan college waist deep in water means that most of the city would be destroyed) and others not enough (couldn't Lyra and one of the Dons discuss the idea of daemons, with Pan chipping in?) and others Just Right (the master's raven-demon announcing his presence). Nice visual contrasts between gothic Inklingesque Oxford, the Magisterium and Mrs Coulter's apartment. Plot-wise, there is a nice sense that Mrs Coulter and Boreal are not simply agents of the Magisterium but playing their own game. I also like Boreal's expeditions to 'our' Oxford avoiding the sudden switch between Lyra's story and Will's. I also dispute your use of the term 'Maguffin': in Hitchcock's terms this is a wholly nominal plot-driver, like a Secret File or Buried Treasure, rather than what the GOBLers are up to. In short, I think that 'Harry-Potter-for-grown-ups' may be a back-handed compliment: the same sense of invention and adventure, and the rather grand visuals, but without the undercutting puns and silliness. Another tag might be Peter Jackson with a stop-watch, where he has to drive the plot rather than having ten-minutes to play with each visual effect. And, as Flash will tell you, Airships Are Cool. If you don't like it after a few more episodes then fair enough, but Alicia has been wincing at the prospect of next week's episode, and who (or what) Lyra finds in the cabin.
My favourite part of His Dark Materials, which is very deliberately and expictly the anti-Narnia and has nothing at all in common with Lewis's work, is when it begins with a girl hiding in a wardrobe and consequently discovering an entire new world.
My second favourite part of His Dark Materials, which is very deliberately and expictly the anti-Lord Of The Rings and has nothing at all in common with Tolkien's work, is when the climactic moment of the plot is the reforging of the Sword That Was Broken.
Just want it minuted that the appropriately-named Dafne Keen also played [the] Wolverine's daughter. Which makes two notional sci-fi fantasy franchises for her about unstoppably sharp blades. Her dad Tom Keen played a Spanish Ambassador - two parts The Magisterium and three parts Monty Python - in "The Musketeers". Her mum is Spanish: no idea how she is with her husband and child helping perpetuate the Black Legend.
24 March 2020 at 01:24
BBC 1
I only read the first two volumes of His Dark Materials. I saw the National Theater Play, so I know how the story ends, with someone accidentally killing God and underage shagging. And I know who Lyra's real parents are. There was a revolving stage and puppets operated by on stage puppeteers in black body suits. War Horse did it better.
Organized religion is a very bad thing, but it isn't propaganda to say so. It's only propaganda when Aslan rises from the dead. I don't make the rules, I just report them.
The BBC adaptation of Pullman manages to capture everything I found incredibly irritating about the books, while skillfully cutting out all the redeeming features. Pullman is good at description and atmosphere and suspense. But once you see the whole thing acted out by human beings in cold blood your realize that Northern Lights was only ever Harry Potter for grown ups. Before we even get to the opening credits, an orphan has been deposited at a a castle door. No-one has refers to her as the Girl Who Lived although they obviously want to. We go immediately into a chase through the kitchens and the laundry to make it absolutely clear that Jordan College is what Hogwarts school would be if Hogwarts school wasn't a theme park. There are airships because airships are cool. CGI has got to the stage where people can be followed around by polecats and leopards and and falcons and we can very nearly believe they are really being followed around by polecats and leopards and falcons. The idea that everyone is followed around by an animal makes weird sense in the book; but once it is represented visually it looks absurd.
When Toy Story and the Phantom Menace came out we all all thought: "This is very clever but ten years from now it is going to look as primitive as a Jon Pertwee Doctor Who Monster." Have we reached a point where CGI can simply simulate reality? Where a computer cat is basically indistinguishable from a cat? Or will people in 20 years say "ha ha funny unrealistic early 21st century animation"?
So, what we seem to have is McGuffin driven quest fantasy. Lyra is the chosen one and someone is mysteriously kidnapping children and there is a magic compass which tells her which bit of the plot she has to go to next. Mrs Coulter is so clearly evil that they play the Darth Vader theme when she comes on stage, but within 15 minutes Lyra is agreeing to go to London with her. Mercifully, she no longer speaks cockney, although she does say "'ent" on one occasion. The Egyptians are reassuringly multi-racial but talk in broad 'zummerzet and call their parents "ma".
What makes His Dark Materials a decent book, at least until the heavier Dakwins elements kick in, is the slow unwinding of the premise; the gradual acclimatization of the reader to the utterly bizarre setting. Characters have demons; by the end of the book you have got a pretty good idea what a demon is. We find out about Lord Azrael's discovery about "dust" and parallel worlds is over a number of chapters. But here, demons are explained in a pre-cred caption, and James McAvoy blurts out the backstory in in a single scene, eighteen minutes into the episode.
The "next episode" trailers gives us a good look at the polar bears, the witches and the cowboy, so there is no particular reason to tune in next week. The opening credits, kind of The Tomorrow People meets Game of Thrones are absolutely splendid. I am not the target audience.
"His Dark Materials"
3 Comments -
Target audience (Alicia) seems to like it. For my part, some bits are a little theatrical (Jordan college waist deep in water means that most of the city would be destroyed) and others not enough (couldn't Lyra and one of the Dons discuss the idea of daemons, with Pan chipping in?) and others Just Right (the master's raven-demon announcing his presence). Nice visual contrasts between gothic Inklingesque Oxford, the Magisterium and Mrs Coulter's apartment. Plot-wise, there is a nice sense that Mrs Coulter and Boreal are not simply agents of the Magisterium but playing their own game. I also like Boreal's expeditions to 'our' Oxford avoiding the sudden switch between Lyra's story and Will's. I also dispute your use of the term 'Maguffin': in Hitchcock's terms this is a wholly nominal plot-driver, like a Secret File or Buried Treasure, rather than what the GOBLers are up to. In short, I think that 'Harry-Potter-for-grown-ups' may be a back-handed compliment: the same sense of invention and adventure, and the rather grand visuals, but without the undercutting puns and silliness. Another tag might be Peter Jackson with a stop-watch, where he has to drive the plot rather than having ten-minutes to play with each visual effect. And, as Flash will tell you, Airships Are Cool. If you don't like it after a few more episodes then fair enough, but Alicia has been wincing at the prospect of next week's episode, and who (or what) Lyra finds in the cabin.
27 November 2019 at 08:47
My favourite part of His Dark Materials, which is very deliberately and expictly the anti-Narnia and has nothing at all in common with Lewis's work, is when it begins with a girl hiding in a wardrobe and consequently discovering an entire new world.
My second favourite part of His Dark Materials, which is very deliberately and expictly the anti-Lord Of The Rings and has nothing at all in common with Tolkien's work, is when the climactic moment of the plot is the reforging of the Sword That Was Broken.
2 December 2019 at 08:26
Just want it minuted that the appropriately-named Dafne Keen also played [the] Wolverine's daughter. Which makes two notional sci-fi fantasy franchises for her about unstoppably sharp blades.
Her dad Tom Keen played a Spanish Ambassador - two parts The Magisterium and three parts Monty Python - in "The Musketeers". Her mum is Spanish: no idea how she is with her husband and child helping perpetuate the Black Legend.
24 March 2020 at 01:24