I'll start with a synopsis from imdb for those not familliar with the book/movie:

Lyra Belaqua, living in Oxford's Jordan College, is not but a young girl living among scholars. Her world may seem diverse, from physical embodiments of souls that take the shape of an animal, but similar with people around you to become friends and enemies. She is thrown into a perilous adventure when she overhears a conversation of an extraordinary microscopic particle, Dust. This particle is said to unite different worlds, and is feared by many who want to destroy it forever. As Lyra is flung into the middle of this horrible struggle, she meets wondrous creatures both big and small, and villains who are not what they seem. Gobblers, that kidnap children, will turn out in the most unexpected places. And a magical compass of gold that will answer any question if one is skilled enough to read it. Lyra's adventure continues throughout these three books, and the first is about to be told.

So what do you want first?  The bad news?  The other bad news?  Or the good news?

I just got out of a press screening for The Golden Compass... and I was pretty dissapointed.  To be fair, I should preface this by explaining that I read all three books in the Phillip Pullman series in the last two months and loved them, so I probably had pretty high expectations.  Although I don't always hate adaptations- I loved all the Harry Potter books and still liked many of the movies.

But back to The Golden Compass- there's a lot going on in these books and it's not an easy feat to fit all the story, (and back-story), into a movie.  But the film wasn't even two hours long.  It played out more like a 2 hour trailer for a mini-series.  The story moved at a breakneck pace, and people next to me who hadn't read the book didn't seem to be quite sure of what was going on.  With so much information to get across, half the dialogue in the film is awkward exposition.  And with so many characters coming and going, you barely get properly introduced to any of them.  They all come across looking more like caricatures than three-dimensional people.  Nicole Kidman gives a strong performance though, and Daniel Craig is commanding for the few minutes that he's actually on screen.  And I feel bad saying it, but I just wasn't convinced by the lead actress playing Lyra.

I was also very dissapointed visually.  Yes, the special effects were good, but nothing looked right.  Maybe I just had very different pictures in my head after reading the book, but Lyra's world looked totally off to me.  I imagined it being ancient and gritty, but the film portrays it as a shiny manicured city.  And all the animals in the film looked too cutesy.  Even the costumes looked too clean.

But enough about that.  On to the other bad news- they moved the press day.  Instead of holding it on Sunday, they're moving it to Wednesday, the day AFTER I leave.  Which means that I won't get to talk to the stars or the director of the film.

So what's the good news?  I can't think of a positive question to ask anybody in the film.  So maybe it's all for the best...