We just went to see The Golden Compass this afternoon and I was disappointed. It was visually well done and the little girl was very good, but not enough was explained and large chunks of the story were cut out.
I really liked the book and I still recommend that, but the movie lacks a lot of the "texture" and detail of the book. Things happen too quickly in the movie and I'm not sure it would make any sense if I had not read the book first. The bad guys were not even well explained and the second or third time some of them came on screen, I heard a child behind me ask his mother who they were.
The people who were worried about the movie having an anti-Christian message, needn't be concerned, the motivations of the bad guys is far too vague for any child to get that much out of it.
There is a lot of fighting in this movie, so if you have sensitive little ones, this is not the movie to take them to. Also, the plot deals heavily with children being kidnapped and lied to, so children may find that disturbing, as well.

I agree that it was incredibly vague. It was visually stunning though. I think my DH and 7 y/o DS enjoyed it because of the fight scenes LOL.

I agree with you. It was vague about some parts, but it filled in a LOT of other details that it takes reading the whole trilogy to find out. They also rearranged some major events.

I'm heading off to see it in an hour.

I am a big fan of the trilogy, so I hope to find something out of it.

Mostly, I'm going to see the Serafina Pekkala character and how she is portrayed....lol.

Serafina Pekkala is exactly how I thought she should look and sound. I wish they had spent more time on the witches, though.
Lee Scorsby is exactly what I thought he'd be like too.

I was so disappointed at the changes...at cutting off the end...the story was changed too much for my liking.

I think it was well cast, however. I was annoyed that they left out such large chunks of the gyptian story, too.

Oh well, glad I saw it, but was sad at how much it was changed.

I can' believe they totally left out the telling of Asrial/Mrs. Coulter as her parents. I mean, she knew, but they didn't tell the story.

they had mrs. coulter tell her instead of the gyptians as it was..sigh. They never explained why Ma Costa watched over her, etc. Very annoying. They also changed the order of the ending..Bolvangar was before Iorek went back to win his kingdom.

Yeah, I had really wanted to see the gathering of the Gyptians.

yeah, I wish they had told more about ma costa. and billy was clinging to a fish when she found him in the book. in the movie he had nothing. In the book, her fierce anger at the man for taking the fish after he died was another step in showing us lyra's loyalty. bah! I was just not pleased. it was all sanitized and what-not.