I went yesterday and I brought my LDS friend with me. At first she didn't want to go because her church advised them to not see the movie ( but if they wanted to , to please advise others about your opinions) but she felt she needed to see for herself what it was all about.
As many of you know movies based on books get alot of facts out of place or just plain wrong. Well this movie does that. Alot of things were out of sequence ,some characters were changed around and things that didn't happen in the book were placed in the movie, but that is to be expected to some extent.
My LDS friend has read the emails and interviews on Pullman and before the movie I explained what all 3 books were about. So she had both sides of the story, so to speak, before going to this movie with me.
That being said this is a great movie for 13 and OVER!!!
It is violent ( people being killed, a polar bear ripping another polar bears jaw off in combat and huge fight scene at the end), it does show kids being hurt (kidnapped, choked) and some of the characters are very mean. Some people brought really young kids ( 6 and under) and those kids were later taken out by their parents because they got really scared!! The movie is PG-13!!!
The visuals are awesome , the acting is great..I even forgot I had a box of candy in my purse to eat during the movie because it was so good and the movie never had a boring part. I walked away very happy to have seen this and the end of the movie was left wide open for the 2nd book. Yeahhhh!! I can't wait for the 2nd movie because that book is even more visual then the 1st.
My friend said she didn't see a thing wrong with it , she even liked the witches because they didn't say spells or seem evil. FYI she does not allow Harry Potter books or movies in her house( because of the witchcraft) but she enjoyed this movie. She did say it was a bit like Narnia( which many say is Pullmans point and thats the harm to children) but she said she didn't see anything remotely anti-religion in the movie. It really protrayed both sides equally and that should be the point taken here.
She said if someone has a strong belief in their faith that seeing this movie or even reading these books should not be able to break down their faith. She thought it was very thought provoking and she said she could see great discussions on this movie and books in her group and in others. She didn't mind giving Pullman her money ( I just had to ask her that question

) because she deemed it necessary to see for herself and to let others know what it is about. With Harry Potter she didn't have to see them all ( only the first one ) to know that it was out and out witchcraft being promoted to children and that they looked evil ( the movies) to her ( we still humbly disagree about these books and movies).
I really value her opinion on many areas and her insight as a religious person ( for this movie) seeing this with me really made me smile that she got the point of these books and this movie!!
It is about discussion , on religion here, and to think about why you are religious and that you would hope that religion itself would NOT turn out like the one Pullman describes , despite what Pullman's personal beliefs are. We did have a long discussion about this movie and I found she was not as closed mind as I onced believed. She teaches a class at her church and when this movie comes out on DVD she is going to run a discussion about this movie and she is checking out the book this week at the library so the class can go into deeper discussions about Pullman's work.
That just makes me smile so so big when I think about all of the open dialogue that will happen in this class.
I loved this movie , my friend enjoyed this movie and my hope is that more people will see this ( or even read the books) and have open , polite dialogue regarding religion with others. Maybe that is Pullman's point all along.. sometimes you need to really stir the pot for something wonderful to turn out. The point being : religion openly disscussed with believers and non-believers and still being able to walk away from each other with both a satisfaction that they made their point and that they have a better understanding of their own beliefs.