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Sat, 28 Jun 2008
Movie Review: The Golden Compass
I have wondered what someone not familiar with the Harry Potter written material would think of the film adaptations. There is so much background material omitted that it would seem somewhat bewildering to watch the Potter films without having first read the books. I need not wonder any longer, because I experienced a strong sense of bewilderment while watching The Golden Compass this evening. The story (if I got it straight) takes place in a world where the characters do not have souls in a traditional sense, but instead are accompanied by animal "daemons" that are living, breathing, talking companions. If the daemon feels pain, then so does the person... if the person dies, so does the daemon, etc. Another key element of the movie is the existence of some sort of magic dust that makes space travel possible (a la the spice "melange" in Dune). The authoritarian Magisterium seeks to control all persons (and their daemons) and squash out the discussion of the magical "dust". In their quest to control the population, the Magisterium kidnaps children and sends them out to a frozen wasteland to conduct experiments on them. I have no idea why, but they just do. One such child is kidnapped, and so his friend Lyra - the main character in the movie - sets out to rescue him, befriending a whole host of characters during her journey. Eventually, Lyra finds him and rescues him... with the help of a polar bear king, a Texas-style cowboy-pilot, some gypsies, and a handful of witches. During the last few minutes of the film we learn that Lyra's father is going to be assassinated for "dust" discovery (or something) by the Magisterium (which had already failed to eliminate him once thanks to Lyra's intervention). The presumption is that there will be a sequel to the movie in order to resolve the disclosure of the assassination plot. Ho hum. Summary: Uninspiring and confusing.
"Hello Dan"
"Hellodan."
Suddenly I understood what Olivia had been trying to communicate to me over the phone all last week. For whatever reason, when Olivia got on the phone to talk to me, she would begin her conversation by saying "hellodan". But what she intended to say - "Dad" - she was pronouncing as "Dan"; she was also running the two words together so that it just sounded like an unintelligible three-syllable word... "hellodan". But I finally get it... "Hello Dad". All day today she called me "Dan":
"Hi Dan." If she uses "Daddy" in a sentence, she does pronounce it correctly (e.g. "Hello Daddy" - not "Hello Danny"). But for now... I'm "Dan" around here.
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