His Dark Materials

[Clifford]

Aye, the Potter novels have credit for boosting the appetite for reading

But I still don't like them. <<< my opinion, but each to his/her own

[GreenRain22]

OMG I LOVE THIS BOOK. My teacher hates it, (It's killing God!!! AHHHH Me: ... I don't believe in God... I believe in His Yumminess...) but I adore the series. It also had a VERY good romantic subplot, which sent my shojo manga loving sistah off the charts. Best book I've read, right next to HP.

[Ham Nox]

I watched the movie before I read the books and having only seen the movie I was at first completely lost as to why everyone was complaining about the Pullman series being anti-religious. That theme didn't really exist in the movie, or at least wasn't as glaringly obvious.

It was a pretty good movie. See, I can say that because I watched the movie first. The movie helped me make some interesting insights into the book by the mere fact that it was so different, but if I'd read the books before the movie I would've been too furious about them disney-fying the story to appreciate it.

It was a great book. I'm glad that the movie was done differently, because I still had the chance to be completely blown away by the ending of Book 1.

As far as Harry Potter goes, I always felt that the series went downhill after 4. Well technically I thought it went downhill after 3, but only because 3 was so awesome that it couldn't be topped. In all fairness, I probably haven't read the last 3 as slowly as I should have because I was too overpoweringly curious to know how it ended... I ought to reread the series.

I was quite sorrowed that Rowling didn't pull a complete twist or conspiracy together. The ending seemed ridiculously predictable--*SPOILERS ALERT* Snape was really a good guy all along, the last horcrux is Harry, and our favorite non-main characters are killed off. My grandmother had this great theory that Professor Mcgonagall was the real evil mastermind behind everything. It makes sense... She's always an impediment in some way under the guise of making sure everyone follows the rules, she's right up there where she can influence the good 'ol man Dumbledore, and her name is Minerva which fits into the idea that she is the patiently waiting wise one.

[Clifford]

Can someone lay out to me the basis of the Golden Compass being a good film? I have yet to be given reasons for that opinion.

[Roland Deschain]

I read the books long before I saw the film. The books were amazing and literally blew me away, as this was the period I was confirming, so to speak, my long-running current philosophy on religion. As for the film, although I thought it was ok, I was a little biased from having read the books beforehand. The amazing message in the books still gets me to this day. There is also the fact that I know several people who worked on the game who are big fans of the book, and they knew what was being done to the books in relation to the film, so I was already disappointed before I saw it. I did try to keep an open mind, and still enjoy watching the film, it's just that i'd rather read the books instead. One of my friends got to go to the premiere in London and meet Philip Pullman. He told him the books were better lol.