I think it’s got a definite anti-religious agenda, or at least the book does. But should that really keep people from seeing it? I have a feeling a lot of atheists watched Mel Gibsons Jesus movie. Religous types are so touchy.
What if atheists would try to ban every movie with a religious content?
I read the books when I was 15 and didn’t notice the anti-religious message at all. It wasn’t until I saw the all the stuff about the movie that I realised that. I don’t really care about that though. It’s just a damn good story.
Also, I don’t think it’s specifically anti-catholic, just anti-organised religion.
Pullman’s own anti-Christian/anti-Catholic bias is documented and he freely admits to it. He also admits that this bias is clear in his works, and he intended them to be antithetical to Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia.
Whether or not these themes are clear in the film (and it seems apparent that they are there though perhaps muted), it doesn’t matter to me. It’s not like Christianity and the Catholic Church has never been criticized. I’m not concerned about an attack on my religion of choice because it’s been going on since it began and it hasn’t fallen apart yet.
The thing that bugs Christians the most is the idea that the main characters ultimately achieve their goal of killing God by engaging in, shall we say, copulation. Whatever, just don’t couch that in the guise of Children’s literature.
Just like I don’t like Narnia for nearly the same reason Tolkien didn’t like it. Allegory, for the chief purpose of relating something considered to be truth, cheapens it. If it cannot be conveyed in a straight-forward sense, then you must not have much confidence either in your message or your ability to convey that message.
I think the reason the movie stinks in the BO (heh) is that from the outset it doesn’t really look like a good movie in the first place. It LOOKS like it’s trying to be Lord of the Rings, it has armored polar bears fighting (just plain odd), and why do we need Dakota Blue whatever when we already got over Dakota Fanning?
The topics at hand make them fun to debate, but ultimately the movie is failing because it just smacks of copying LotR. Narnia received less response than LotR, and it only follows that Compass will face the same problem, same as Stardust did.
I think it’s got a definite anti-religious agenda, or at least the book does. But should that really keep people from seeing it? I have a feeling a lot of atheists watched Mel Gibsons Jesus movie. Religous types are so touchy.
What if atheists would try to ban every movie with a religious content?
I read the books when I was 15 and didn’t notice the anti-religious message at all. It wasn’t until I saw the all the stuff about the movie that I realised that. I don’t really care about that though. It’s just a damn good story.
Also, I don’t think it’s specifically anti-catholic, just anti-organised religion.
If the Church wants to draw comparisons between themselves and uber-evil villains, go ahead. I’m sure it’ll work out for the best. 😆
Pullman’s own anti-Christian/anti-Catholic bias is documented and he freely admits to it. He also admits that this bias is clear in his works, and he intended them to be antithetical to Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia.
Whether or not these themes are clear in the film (and it seems apparent that they are there though perhaps muted), it doesn’t matter to me. It’s not like Christianity and the Catholic Church has never been criticized. I’m not concerned about an attack on my religion of choice because it’s been going on since it began and it hasn’t fallen apart yet.
The thing that bugs Christians the most is the idea that the main characters ultimately achieve their goal of killing God by engaging in, shall we say, copulation. Whatever, just don’t couch that in the guise of Children’s literature.
Just like I don’t like Narnia for nearly the same reason Tolkien didn’t like it. Allegory, for the chief purpose of relating something considered to be truth, cheapens it. If it cannot be conveyed in a straight-forward sense, then you must not have much confidence either in your message or your ability to convey that message.
I think the reason the movie stinks in the BO (heh) is that from the outset it doesn’t really look like a good movie in the first place. It LOOKS like it’s trying to be Lord of the Rings, it has armored polar bears fighting (just plain odd), and why do we need Dakota Blue whatever when we already got over Dakota Fanning?
The topics at hand make them fun to debate, but ultimately the movie is failing because it just smacks of copying LotR. Narnia received less response than LotR, and it only follows that Compass will face the same problem, same as Stardust did.