His Dark Materials

Lyra and Will 'kill' The Authority - big part of the plot. Lord Asriel wants to build a Republic of Heaven in the new world - that's the whole point of him blasting through to it - what are they going to give as his reason now? The whole idea of Dust is related to religion, and it is Lyra's temptation (being the reflection of Eve's temptation) that causes the Dust to fall normally again and not drift away.

Then there's Baruch, Balthamos, Metatron, Father Gomez, Mary, The Oblation Board, the Consistorial Court...

First up, i loved seeing Lyra at the very beginnning of the movie with Roger and Billy Costa, it was just great.

I also loved the fact that the film stayed true (well almost) to the point where Lyra goes to the shack in the North where a "Ghost" is.

Now, here is where, for me, things went down hill.

The boy in the shack was not and should not have been Billy Costa, we KNOW Billy makes it back to Ma Costa (with his Deamon who WAS NOT NAMED RATTA!) after helping Lyra and Roger break everyone out of Bolvanger.

Then of course comes the whole "FILM WARP" with Lord Asriel, whilst fighting those Samarians or whatever they are called, i thought i was watching a James Bond Film! So did John!

another thing about Asriel, he was being kept prisoner by the armoured bears not those guys who took on James Bond! *still thinks Jason Isaacs would have been so much better but loved Daniel as James, i mean Asriel anyway.*

What else....

Oh the whole "Iorek Byrnison becomes king before they attack Bolvanger" that annoyed me. WHY COULDNT THEY KEEP THE FILMIN SEQUENCE WITH THE BOOKS?

I so wanna be Sarafina, she rocked, was exactly as i pictured her in the books, and her going to Lyra on the ship didnt bother me, very cool.

I LOVED the fighting, kids Vs soliders, in come the Gypians and Iorek, was how i pictured it, along with Iorek's fights with the other bear whatshisname, so, the fighting was cool, loads of kids screamed (i cheered) when Iorek won and how brilliant a victory it was *whoosh off goes jar, whoosh broken neck whoosh i win* bloody brilliant!

And now for my big, film ruined complaint someone please tell me, how and WHY they felt the need to CUT THE ENDING OUT? hello, what about the next book? IT DOESNT START WITH LYRA!!! HOW ON EARTH ARE THEY GOING TO EXPLAIN THAT EH?

Nicole Kidman was brillaint as Mrs Coultar, she really did own the Charecter when she finds Lyra about to be sliced by that big machine.

Dakota as Lyra, a girl chosen from thousands at an open call, WAS BLOODY BRILLIANT! Well done to her!

Graphics and explosions were all cool. Overall a good film, i'd reccommend it to someone who HAD NOT read the books, if you've read the books tho, be prepared to sit and go thats nt right, thats wrong, what the hell....during the 2nd half of the film.

(Roger's death)

I like how they showed Lyra was a big storyteller right from the beginnning... the poinsoned robe story was cute. And the way she was friends with Billy Costa, their conversation was also very cute

The kid who played Roger at first looked off to me, but I warmed to him as the movie went on. He was cute in a little mouse sort of way

I actually disagree with Etta... I thought that the first half of the movie was a little off and then it kicked into its groove in the second half.

All of the fighting was amazing... even though Daniel Craig's beating up the eskimos did scream, "LOOK, IM JAMES BOND!" The bear fight was also pretty good... jaw-dropping even.... HAHA joke. Get it?

All the Bolvangar scenes were creepy like NO OTHER. I'm still shivering from it... ehhh. Just the way the adults were so obedient and their daemons were so blank... *shiver* All of the white walls and the children's clothes reminded me of an asylum.

I thought it was a good place to end the movie I knew that they cut off the final 2 chapters of the book out of the movie, but one other girl in the theatre yelled out, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" when the final credits showed up... made the audience laugh

I think that all of the changes from the book to the screen were necessary, and did not take away from the plot at all. Introducing little Tony and Ratter would have taken too long, so I like that they replaced them with Billy. I didn't mind. Didn't make the movie horrible.

Aaaaand thats bascially all the spoilers I have.

I liked it. I went in expecting not to, because I'd heard they cut all religion, which I thought would ruin the plot. Well, technically, not so: we never really hear just who the Magisterium are - we're never explicitly told that they're the church, so if you've read the books you'll know it is, if you haven't, then not.

I thought it was a good adaption. I was a bit confused that they swapped the sequence of events around - Bolvanger after Svalbard instead of the other way around, but to be honest it didn't bother me too much. I can understand why they changed it, considering the way they chose to end the film.

Casting was fabulous - I'd worried before seeing it that the actress playing Lyra looked too young, but she was fine - her voice was very mature. Kidman and Craig were fantastic as Mrs Coulter and Lord Asriel, for the small amount of time they were in the film.

I liked seeing the cameo's from Derek Jacobi and Christopher Lee, and Ian McKellan's epic voice fitted Iorek perfectly. Lee Scoresby was great too, though his balloon wasn't very balloon-y!

The CGI worked well - for everything but the monkey. Did it have to look so fake? They could have done a lot better on the monkey, but the other daemons were really great, and the bears too. I loved how we actually saw the daemon being extinguished in a poof of Dust when their human died.

I also liked how we 'saw' Lyra's readings of the alethiometer by going into the compass and seeing the images through whorls of Dust. It sort of helps us understand without explicitly saying it that Dust controls the alethiometer.

I am a little annoyed that the ending was cut, but it didn't bother me too much because I knew it was coming, and it *does* leave a little more anticipation for the next film.

So overall, I did enjoy the film and I think they did a pretty decent job of bringing a very complex story to the big screen.

Now I can't wait for The Subtle Knife - and they'd better cast someone GREAT for Will!