Sadly, the preview makes the movie look kind of dull. I'm still excited to read the rest of the book though. Maybe it's a slow burn.

the trailer showed some good stuff, but the trailer creation was cheesy. The opening was all symbolic cg plus "mars" as soundtrack? Made me think of the cut scenes in the old video game "outpost". And why did the announcer say the movie's name at the end? Again, dumb and offputting...shades of old timey trailers that had too much voice over.

anybody else think that bear could have gone for some coca cola?

snark aside, though, i am now excited to see the movie.

The book was good in the same way that the Harry Potter book was good, it effectively created a universe that felt coherent and consistent. Where Harry Potter's universe was whimsical, the His Dark Materials trilogy's universe was menacing. The movie will likely ultimately suffer the same fate as the Harry Potter movies: you can't convey the same level of detail in the development of a universe in a movie in the same way that you can in a book and the story will suffer because of it.

Also, the effects looked lousy.

Harry Potter's universe is more than whimsical -- it's downright arbitrary. JK Rowling makes up whatever she wants, and it's only worth reading because she makes arbitrariness fun. His Dark Materials, on the other hand, is menacing, yes, but also consistent and furthers an interesting teleology.

As for the Harry Potter movies, in some ways, I find them better than the novels, in that they aren't the movie equivalent of 900 pages long. (Although I really disliked the 4th movie, I think I liked it more than the 4th book for the fact that it was much shorter.) And the movies bring to life some visual elements that aren't quite there in the book.

I won't speak to the His Dark Materials movie, because I haven't seen it. I have a feeling it will have much less "bite" than the novels, and that is unfortunate. I agree with you about the effects, but I would say the same for much of the Lord of the Rings movies. Fantasy is hard to do.

Actually, I will say that the last 100 pages of the 4th Harry Potter book was far far better than the equivalent section in the movie.

It's arbitrary in a way that somehow makes sense in Harry Potter world. It's a coherent sort of arbitrary.

The HDM trailer is also notable in its near non-use of the spirit animal things (what were those called? I'm blanking on the word they used... was it daemons?) For a universe element that basically defined and motivated the stories, it's odd that they were barely used in the trailer. Maybe it's just that they're too difficult to explain quickly? It would be sad if they were somehow shifted to the periphery of the story... they ARE the story.

Oh, they'll be there.

Coherent? Are the rules of Quidditch coherent? Was the Triwizard Tournament coherent? Is Wizard society outside of the confines of Hogwarts coherent? I enjoy reading the Harry Potter books because they are fun, but they aren't much else.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I didn't coherent as in "makes sense," I meant coherent as in "fits together." The universe fits together, even if it makes no logical (or even explanable) sense.

Go play that game I emailed you.

I agree that the HP novels are fun but let's just say "clunky." And regarding the movies, HP4 was just terrible! I was so pissed when they didn't show ANY of the actual Quidditch final. And then they overdid it with all the dating and dance stuff.

I hear that they've changed quite a bit of the story of HDM for the movies, so I'm thinking they maybe really messed up the daemon stuff. I really don't have my hopes up for anything good, but like with all this stuff I'm sure to see it and probably opening weekend.