The Energon Pub

My wife and I went and saw it today. When I was watching TV a few days ago, I caught just a snippet of some kind of religious undertones in it. I thought it was another CS Lewis type thing, more Christian beliefs spread throughout an adventure movie.

So before we go, I look it up, my wife is excited she likes to see the theology that authors intertwine in their stories.

Then it came.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp

It seems dear Mr. Pullman is trying to get into kids heads early that their is no God, and that he and the production company have all of these plans to get this 'bad' book into children's hands ironically enough for Christmas--the biggest christian holiday there is--.

Hmmm... There have been plenty of movies that have had Christian religious ties, themes, and so forth. But a movie for families that presents the side that believes there is no God, it spiked my interest, but sort of ruined it for my wife.

Anyway, the movie was pretty good. A heck of a cast, nice special effects, etc.

Did anybody else hear 'ol Ian McKellan call on his Gandalf the wizard performance for his new role as the snowbear Iorik?

For a family movie it was a bit violent, but not horrible, but since I went in looking for anti-Christian, anti-Catholic church, anti-religious tones, the movie was a bit skewed for me, because I could not see past the blatant slaps in the face to religious hierarchy--albeit it could have been government hierarchy as well.

Makes me wonder if they will do the two sequels. I have not read the books myself, but as the Christian groups feared, I will read them now. 'Golden Compass' or 'Northern Lights' as some of you know it, is the softest of the three, and I guess the blatant anti-religion themes get much worse in the next two.

An enjoyable movie? Sure. A great movie? I didn't think so. I think that the God fearing minds of our youth will probably survive this commercial onslaught or religion just fine.

Let me know what you guys think.

Best parts = Ian McKellen, Sam Elliot, Kathy Bates, Daniel Craig.

Their acting kicked ass in it.

As for the anti-catholic stuff. Well, yeah, it's anti-Catholic church, but it's based in truth. The church telling you how to live your lives, instead of letting you live your lives while encouraging you to be a good person.

Plus, for a book by an Athiest, there was a hell of a lot more things in their spiritual wise than not.

Daemon's(Spirit Guides/Familiars), Witches, the duality, etc, etc.

Sure, in the third movie, he kills a god-like figure. But all in all, the stories say, be a good person, don't let other people tell you how to live your life. Question everything, find out the truth for yourself and make an informed decision.

I think thats a good moral, even if people boycott it because it's "anti-church." It's not anti-religion in the least. So long as people realize there is more than one religion out there.

Movie was absolute shite, and not a patch on the books, which are far, far darker, and 10 times more subtle.

The books aren't about creating Atheists, either. Read them. Dust/Dark Matter is revealed to be God himself, being a stream of sentient particles that nurtures evolution. It's very much an Intelligent Design thought process, even if Pullman's an Atheist.

It's all about ideas, really. If Pullman uses his Atheism as a means to write some of the greatest fantasy books of all time, so be it.

Edit: I was actually disappointed with the deliverance of a lot of McKellen's lines. The man can do no wrong, so I'm blaming the director. (Mainly "Lyra Silvertongue/ Come along my demon")

Having never read the books or seen the movie, I think I can still offer insight to your problem, because I'm an aspiring writer myself and I've struggled with faith and what it means all my life and I have definately poured that into my work.


Basically, what it boils down to, is that a lot of artists distrust religion. We don't like boundaries, we don't like the set path to follow that it provides.

Seems this Pullman was one of those guys.


I think the reason a lot of Hollywood is anti-religious stuff is because they deal in peddling art. So they cater to artists, and are artists themselves.

Of course, I don't know how much you can actually use the word art in their case, but the principle still stands: They deal with a lot of material created by people who don't trust systems and set paths.


I used to be very religious. I used to hate it too when all these percieved slaps in the face of God would be shown to me on screen or in print. Why couldn't people understand and respect my faith?

But then I lost it, and as bad as that may or may not be, I now can offer the viewpoint of the other side and offer my take your situation.


Don't let it get to you the next time God is dissed in the movies. They are created by people who have seen more tragedy than good with religion.


But I do agree that it is kind of a gross irony that people are seeing it around Christmas. Or getting it for Christmas later.

I think that the anti- religious undertones in movies today is a good thing. it's expression. it shows that something can be good even if it completely b**ch slaps something that people believe in.

what I don't particularly enjoy is people like will donahue and the catholic league bashing the film and the writer of the books for doing so. It's intolerance.

I personally look forward to seeing the film because it has a great cast lineup and it looks like it will kick major ass!

The books are supposedly heavy in anti-religionism. So I'm buying the set for christmas




To be totally honest, it's about time people realised religion isn't the be-all-end-all. I'm tired of being told why I'm going to an imaginary place called 'hell', just because I lived.

O.K., to start hell is a real place. But, I'm glad this is only a book and movie so it doesn't mean much. Besides, it in the fiction section of the library for a reason.

Nice to have the flip side after the so heavily Christianised Narnia Movie (with sequels to follow).

I love watching religious groups go bonkers and over-react to movies, I say the same to them about the Golden Compass as I do to them regarding Harry Potter or any other movie:

It's just a movie, it aint real, get over it.

i_amtrunks wrote:It's just a movie, it aint real, get over it.

QFT. I would be a giddy little school girl if this actually happened. Situations like this are one of the reasons I don't care to watch the news anymore. It all just boils down to a waste of time.

That's right Hell is a real place. It's an unchartered township here in Michigan.

I am a big fan of anything that is anti religious. Mostly because religions as a whole are organizations which bully their members into believing many things and not questioning why they believe them.

That being said.... I give two thumbs up to faith. That's fine.

I'll be seeing this movie sometime next week.

Rodimus_Lantern wrote:That's right Hell is a real place. It's an unchartered township here in Michigan.

Don't forget California and Norway!

All I can say is, this movie is definitely good for a change:

Think for yourself, don't let others spoon feed you what to believe, beware of Catholics... sounds like a positive message to me.

Oh, and a Narnia spoof is in the new Robot Chicken episode, available at adultswim.com

Having not yet seen the film or read the books, I can say that it is important that kids be taught that religion is a choice, not an obligation. Thinking for yourself first and foremost, taking responsibility for your actions and survival, and living simultaneously for the benefit of oneself and one's species can be done without identifying oneself with any particular faith, or even lack thereof.

I don't really see a big problem here.

I read the trilogy, and I didn't really see anything anti-christian in particular. I did see some attack's on catholicism's rigidness, and it's faults, sort of like what Dante did. But what Dante did was considered a masterpiece. So I say most of this is just hype. Just let it blow over, and you'll see some pretty good acting.

I'm religious, and it doesn't bother me. I won't be seeing it, and neither will my daughter. I see no reason to give these people support of any kind.
Anyone who wants to see it, go. But can we please avoid jumping on yet another excuse to bash Christianity?

MagnusPrimal wrote:I won't be seeing it, and neither will my daughter. I see no reason to give these people support of any kind.
Anyone who wants to see it, go. But can we please avoid jumping on yet another excuse to bash Christianity?

I personally think this contradicts:

MagnusPrimal wrote:I'm religious, and it doesn't bother me.

I just probably won't see it because I don't get out very often lately (curse you college apps!!!) and have seen the fantasy genre rehashed several hundred times.

DesalationReborn wrote:

MagnusPrimal wrote:I won't be seeing it, and neither will my daughter. I see no reason to give these people support of any kind.
Anyone who wants to see it, go. But can we please avoid jumping on yet another excuse to bash Christianity?

I personally think this contradicts:

MagnusPrimal wrote:I'm religious, and it doesn't bother me.

I just probably won't see it because I don't get out very often lately (curse you college apps!!!) and have seen the fantasy genre rehashed several hundred times.

Why? I'm not going to rant and rave about it, or tell people not to see it. But I'm not going to support it.

I would ask people on this board to not take this as an opportunity to bash Christianity though. If you see a contradiction in my previous statements, I don't guess there's much I can do about it.

This isn't so bad as a fantasy adventure, just the mere fact they chose to make fun of the Christian religion. Though it is expected, most people choose to make fun of Christians alone. Why not the Muslims? Or Hindus? Insulting religion should just be kept to oneself.

I'm not going to see it, but then again I wasn't going to see it before. I have no interest in the movie.

Armorock wrote:This isn't so bad as a fantasy adventure, just the mere fact they chose to make fun of the Christian religion. Though it is expected, most people choose to make fun of Christians alone. Why not the Muslims? Or Hindus? Insulting religion should just be kept to oneself.

I don't think it's addressed to such alone--as I understand, the comparison is generally vague-- but one usually writes about what one knows best, and this book trilogy was written in English. If Sanskrit, Mandarin, or Arabic, it might be different.

MP-- just being anal with word usage. Why, I don't know. Apathy would be for not caring at all.

I'm liking the ideas behind the movie but I probably won't go see it because its just not my type of movie. I'd rather see Hitman. Maybe I'll download it out of curiosity one day.

This definately tickled my fancy about the books though. Seems a good new way to un-brainwash people, almost as good as "The Matrix has you."

That's right Hell is a real place. It's an unchartered township here in Michigan.

Lol. Remember: Pics or it didn't happen!

Armorock wrote:This isn't so bad as a fantasy adventure, just the mere fact they chose to make fun of the Christian religion. Though it is expected, most people choose to make fun of Christians alone. Why not the Muslims? Or Hindus? Insulting religion should just be kept to oneself.

There's a difference between making fun of something and criticising it, and it's aimed at all organised religion in general. The books are far more subtle than the movies which portray the Church as being the Empire from Star Wars. The books show the Church as being a grey area, much like every other character.

i went and saw it purely for armoured polar bears,

there are a variety of interpretations, but i concur with the arch-bishop of cantebury, I thinks its attack dogmatism and use of religion to opress, which i find to be the most fitting, since i highly doubt most christians groups are quite as fascist as the magisterium, perhaps before thinking it's an outright attack on your beleifs you should evaluate your beliefs, and evaluate the bad guys and see if there are in fact any real parralells;

does christianity advocate kidnapping?
does christiantiy advocate experimentation of children?
does christianity control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling?
does christianity worship a creature which is not god?
is christianity an oppressive force?
is the christian god a tyrant?

decide for yourselves is christianity is like the magisterium.

Tammuz wrote:i went and saw it purely for armoured polar bears,

there are a variety of interpretations, but i concur with the arch-bishop of cantebury, I thinks its attack dogmatism and use of religion to opress, which i find to be the most fitting, since i highly doubt most christians groups are quite as fascist as the magisterium, perhaps before thinking it's an outright attack on your beleifs you should evaluate your beliefs, and evaluate the bad guys and see if there are in fact any real parralells;

does christianity advocate kidnapping?
does christiantiy advocate experimentation of children?
does christianity control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling?
does christianity worship a creature which is not god?
is christianity an oppressive force?
is the christian god a tyrant?

decide for yourselves is christianity is like the magisterium.

Well, to be fair, the Magisterium is hopelessly exaggerated in the movie, and is referred to equally as much, if not more so, as simply 'The Church' in the books. The experimentation is meant to be the universe's equivalent of Castrati, and they worship 'God'.

I really don't see the big deal, so the movie's "anti-religious", I can think of worse movies. A lot of fuss has been made down here about it and one of our reporters actually asked Nicole Kidman that question about the anti-religiousness of it.

There'll always be someone, or some group, somewhere, that will get their panties in a bunch over something.

Regardless, I don't know if I'll see it because I'm not into all those "kid saves the day" kind of movies unless there's a nuclear explosion or rabid horde of zombies in it.

Thank you, Negare. There will be someone out there that gets their panties in a wad. OooOOoooOOO.... Anti-religious movie! OMFGWTFBBQ!!!!!!!!

Who cares? Its a movie. At no point during the movie jump out of the screen and point a gun to my head and tell me to change my religious views. Nor did the movie ever come waltzing up to me and insult my religious beliefs.

What I find to be the most offensive thing is that people are offended by this movie. Can we not watch a simple movie without being offended? Are people really so insecure in what they believe that they can not allow a movie to be? Perhaps, if a "movie for Aetheists" rattles you, then perhaps you need to find out why your beliefs are so lightly rooted in you.

All in all... That was buttload of random. Every time I turned around, there was another damn new character or another damn new side-quest.

But the acting was... Decent. Not top-notch, like Will Smith's latest performance, but still no bad acting. Which is nice.

I'd... Eh... Wish I hadn't spent money on it. If you pirate movies... Watch it. But I wouldn't spend money on it.