So it's been a busy week for me, and I wanted to give my little review to a great movie I saw this week. Phillip Pullman was apart of the Inklings, which was a group of English scholars and literary writers including everyone's favorite JRR Tolkien. These great minds created and share together an incredible universe of wonder and fantasy. Obviously Tolkien took that creation and gave it such life that we all have been touched or moved by his work.

In that group, great writers have emerged. Adam Fox, Nevill Coghill, and of course CS Lewis, of The Chronicle of Narnia fame. Phillip Pullman came away with his own universe, and told a magnificent tale in his trilogy: His Dark Material.

Riding high on The Lord of the Ring and Chronicle of Narnia success, His Dark Material was produced and and finally released this week. First in the series is Northern Lights, or for us US audience, The Golden Compass.

(If you have not read the book or seen the movie: spoiler alert/kinda)

At first I was a bit skeptical about how they would rework the ending, since in the book Pullman does not end the book. Instead with the climatic ending with the battle at Bolvanger, we are taken to Lyra's father going into the Dust and her promise to follow and find more infomation about Dust. How would this translate to film, since the typical audience wants an complete ending.

I have the say the director/screenwriter Chris Wietz did a fairly good job of keeping the character development in the book (a couple of holes here and there). What he did was move the story faster then Pullman, albeit sacrificing some plot. Which was OK, since it was only minor items.

I'm not a movie reviewer by trade, so I won't get into the details. If you are a fan of Tolkien and CS Lewis, I would strongly suggest you pick Phillip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Material (containing The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass). You will not be disappointed. Then go see the movie, as Hollywood made and good translation from book to film.

Support this film, otherwise we will never be able to see the rest of the trilogy.

~Philly