The Golden Compass

I saw The Golden Compass today and I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's not as good as Stardust (of course, most movies aren't) but it's really good and I'm very much looking forward to the sequel. It is based on a book by Philip Pullman, a graduate of Oxford (he was in Exeter College). One of my colleagues recommended to me a couple of week's ago that I read Pullman's stuff. I had not realized (a) that The Golden Compass (called by a different name in the UK) was his, although I remember seeing the trailer and being extremely interested in seeing the film, and (b) that he was an Oxonian.

As discussed on the wikipedia page, there are some familiar locales in the film (Radcliffe Hall, and The Queen's College/Queen's Lane) --- though I actually thought the college in the film was one I had walked through when I visited Cambridge. Oops. I'm waiting for Somerville to appear on film, and maybe that will happen when we see biopics on Margaret Thatcher or Indira Ghandi.

Anyway, I highly recommend this film. Go see it! (Before the film, I saw a trailer for Be Kind Rewind, a new film by Gondry that I really want to see. It doesn't excite me as much as the trailer for The Science of Sleep did, but it still looks really awesome (and how can I not be partial to a trailer that includes Ray Parker, Jr.'s Ghostbusters Theme?).


Update: I completely forgot to mention that this movie contains an evil blonde woman named Mrs. Coulter.