His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass) Philip Pullman ISBN: 978-0440238607 Pub. Date: September 23, 2003 Publisher: Laurel Leaf
	The Golden Compass Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards Director: Chris Weitz

Cross posted at http://www.nomadicminds.org

Excellent books, disappointing movie. But is it possible to produce a good movie of such a richly written book? There has been two attempts to cinematize Dune; both failed too.

What an interesting concept that everyone has three parts: body, soul, and spirit. These three parts can exist independently — body can live on without spirit, soul goes to hell/heaven after body dies. Pullman made the spirit exist in the form of an animal that has to stay close to the body. When the tie between the body and spirit gets severed, two things happen: a great amount of energy releases and the person either dies or becomes very dull.

Lyra, the main character, reads the Golden Compass, an oracular instrument. That skill comes from the rare ability to intensively focused on emptiness. With that, and Golden Compass as the channel, Lyra communicate with Dust, a substance both generated by and stimulates human intellects. Human becomes more creative when exposed to Dust; the creativity also generates Dust. Apparently, multiple cultures discovered the same and created their own version of the instrument. Chinese's I-Ching is one of them. Astrology, Taro cards, crystal ball, and other fortune telling skills are all the same thing.

The movie ends up with inconherent fragments and under-devleoped characters. Nicole Kidman, however, almost perfected the role. I cannot think of a better actor for Mrs. Coulter. But maybe it is not fair to critize the movie as a book reader. Only Lord of the Rings, after all, met my expectation as a successful adaptation. I watch Harry Potter movies mainly just to reminisce: like a quick re-read and recollection of the details.