This movie is complete garbage

Rating: 1/10 (26 May 2008)

I just watched two controversial movies in the past week, one being The Chronicles of Narnia: lion/witch/wardrobe, and the other being The Golden Compass.
I'm sickened, shocked and horrified that moviegoers in the United States have rallied so firmly behind the former (Narnia) and against the latter (Compass).
Narnia is a shallow and predictable excuse for a movie, making no attempt to shroud its abusive and disgusting Christian imperialist message to the audience. It doesn't even attempt to get decent actors or a solid plot -- it just finds a Jesus/God character (the Lion, of course) and makes humans more important than all of the other animals, despite the shortcomings of the naive, lying and cheating humans. I understand the book was very short, but that doesn't make up for the gaping holes in the plot and complete lack of character development. The movie stutters from one scene to the next with no premonitions, no foreshadowing, nothing. Unless of course you know the story of the bible, but in that case you don't even need to watch this movie because all it does is chop up and regurgitate biblical tales to viewers in an attempt to further the Christian agenda. There is nothing new here, only some children and a bunch of animals who for some reason are willing to kill themselves to fulfill the prophecy of the return of the almighty humans.
The Golden Compass, on the other hand, was brilliantly dynamic, featured far better graphics and more diverse and unique characters and offered absolutely phenomenal acting. Daniel Craig was stern, Nicole Kidman was conniving and Dakota Blue Richards was gutsy, bold, unbelievably strong and tremendously courageous, to an extent that none of the children dreamed to achieve in Narnia. Simply put, Narnia was like a youth group adaptation of a biblical story in a church in the middle of rural Oklahoma and Compass was a stunning grade-A adaptation of the real history of the world by world-class actors.
Anyone who knows history can see the relevancy and importance of The Golden Compass. During the Dark Ages, organized religion WAS the Magesterium. They murdered and imprisoned people for speaking out against the church, they burned witches, they kidnapped children, they did almost everything that the Magesterium is accused of in Compass. This is a realistic and accurate portrayal of what has happened when religions and governments blend and imperialism and xenophobia take the front seat in foreign and domestic policy, today, eight hundred years ago or two thousand years ago. And it's the same thing that will happen in the future if we continue to escalate the war between Christianity and Islam.
The Magesterium also represents the attempt of *organized* religion to remove our souls from our bodies, which ironically are called "daemons" in the movie. This is a clear point that our inner demons, in real life, ARE our souls, as in that which makes us both good and bad is still what makes us. This movie is not a shot at faith and spirituality, but rather a shot at the blend of religion, power and government that so often convene when a church becomes involved in politics and thus gains power over society. We've seen this happen throughout history, so why people seem so shocked that Compass simply illustrates what has happened so frequently in the past 2-3000 years is truly beyond me.
Now look at Narnia. A delusional and unrealistic world where all you have to do is have "faith" in fairytale thoughts and everything ends up pretty in the end, with humans controlling everything and every other species of the earth obeying and abiding by the human agenda. To make the movie more marketable to children they make it so none of the good guys die in the end, they are only suspended by freezing them, there is no blood and while plenty of animals are killed and sacrificed, the children, who accomplish literally nothing throughout the entire film, are praised mindlessly by everyone.
Aside from the obvious fact that Compass had infinitely better actors and acting, better graphics and a much better plot, even the premise surpassed Narnia in historical accuracy, thoughtful foreshadowing of the future and its attempt to give a realistic impression of human nature when faced with an oppressive and all-powerful force.
Point being: Narnia is magical fairytale land, Compass is thoughtful, brilliant and historically accurate.