Eleven years ago, the dismal ending of a movie became the "last straw" that overwhelmed a film company. The new line of film that produced the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was acquired by Time Warner.
The movie that New Line Pictures loves and hates is called "Golden Compass", which is adapted from the first part of Philip Pullman's "Dark Matter Trilogy". The remaining two are "Mystery Dagger" and "Amber Telescope". The novel tells the story of a young girl, Laila, in order to save her friend Roger, relying on the guidance of the golden compass to discover a huge conspiracy in a parallel world.
Eleven years later, this fantasy story reappears. The
drama version of "Dark Matter Trilogy", produced by BBC and published by HBO, co-produced by New Line Pictures and Bad Wolf. After encountering "Waterloo", can New Line Pictures learn a lesson and achieve a counterattack in this new round of IP development?
Judging from the two episodes that have been broadcast so far, the drama version of "Dark Matter Trilogy" is likely to allow us to witness the best fantasy adaptation. Why
movie version hit the street? For the 2007 "Golden Compass",
invested 180 million in production costs, the most expensive in its history. Carrying high expectations, the final box office collapsed.
can't blame Nicole Kidman for being too expensive and special effects costing too much. But the box office table is actually poor. The biggest reason why
audiences don’t buy it is that the movie version is too young. The movie targets children and the script only revolves around the plot of the "golden compass". A story like
is too smooth.
Laila’s forefoot was discovered by Mrs. Coulter. In the next second, he could avoid the pursuit and was successfully rescued by the Gypsies. Then it was logical to get the guidance of the witch and the expert, and effortlessly find the helper armored bear...
All this is needed When Laila encountered a problem, she took out the golden compass and asked, she could see the past and predict the future. You know, Aladdin's magic lamp can only be used three times.
magic props, really can't be omnipotent. It's like everyone knows that this is Tang Seng meat, a 120-minute movie cannot be the protagonist being chased by monsters, and then running all the way by the protection of his partner. The audience wanted to see Monkey King fighting monsters, not the protagonist blessed by the protagonist's halo. The movie version of
also eliminates the religious themes and dark matter elements of the original work, which makes the richness of the ideas drastically reduced. Parallel world, is it the rabbit hole of Alice in Wonderland? If you do this subtraction, the audience will not buy it, and the reputation is not very satisfactory.
Fortunately, the newly launched drama version of "Dark Matter Trilogy", in the first episode, the description of the mysterious substance "Dust" surfaced.
Following a series of gluttonous kidnappings, the gathering of gypsies who lost their children, the return of Lord Asriel and the departure, Mrs. Coulter adopts Laila with a ghost in her heart... Everything points to the destination-the North Pole.
Players eager for power and the world of faith at war are full of complexity, and the two episodes that have been broadcast are quite surprising. Firm dogmatic beliefs and unconstrained power should be contested head-on. After all, this is what the audience has been waiting for.
This time, I found the right way to open the story.
Each protagonist has to solve the mystery of who he is. For example, in the "Harry Potter" series, the most catching passage is Harry's quest for his biological parents. Similarly, in the "Dark Matter Trilogy", Laila has to embark on a path of self-identification.
Before the uncle Lord Asriel returned with the secret of "Dust", apart from the teacher at the Jordan College of Oxford University, Laila's only friend was Roger, a boy who was also an orphan. So when her best friend was taken away by gluttonous food, Laila desperately wanted to find him, precisely out of the cherishment of this emotion. This has also become the driving force behind the development of subsequent stories.
Laila and Roger
have complained to many netizens about Laila’s "Mystery Acting", but I think Daphne Keane (the "Little Wolf Girl" in "Wolverine 3") has shaped it just right The image of a rebellious, guarded orphan.
Daphne Keene as Layla
From the appearance, Daphne Keene’s appearance is not as sweet as the movie version of the actor, and she does not often have an innocent smile on her face. Characters are often offensive when encountering abnormalities, which may be an offense to audiences who are expecting a purely ignorant heroine. But this is what makes her unique.
grew up as an orphan, it must be like this.
was influenced by her uncle, and Laila's wild nature made her yearn for adventure, eager to travel north and south with Lord Asriel, to see the novel world. But at the same time, the uncle's intentional alienation made Laila's emotions nowhere to release.
James McEvoy plays Lord Asriel
until the female adventurer Marissa Kurt appears, making this rebellious girl fascinated by her feminine charm, which is more like the maternal love that Laila has been missing since childhood. Compared with the beauty of the movie version of Nicole Kidman, the actor in the drama version of Mrs. Coulter is more evil. The relationship between Laila and Mrs. Kurt is full of contradictions, love but at the same time conspiracy. In addition to the drama version of
(left) and the movie version of Mrs. Coulter
, there are many details that make the characters of the drama version more solid, free from the embarrassment of only plot and no characters in the movie version. Even for the mother who lost her son, the heartbreak in the drama version is more real than the state of being strong enough to be okay in the movie version.
Judging from the two episodes that have been updated so far, although the key prop of the golden compass has not yet played a role, the various complexities of human nature have been laid out. Gorgeous visual effects and outstanding performances of actors, as well as friends and armored bears waiting for Laila in the mysterious Arctic, are all worth looking forward to.
【Text/Wen Shuosuo】
