Thank you, Townhall, for this, my first blogging experience.

Go to my WordPress blog for further ruminations.

(If only WordPress's post editor was half as good as Townhall's!)

Head over to my blog for the review. I am adding to it all the time.

Courtesy of IMDb.com.

I plan to see the movie later today. In the meantime, enjoy some of the following reviews.

Gina R. Delfonzo: "Unenchanted -- The Golden Compass translated to film poorly"

Emily Karrs: "Compass Points in All Directions -- Or maybe none"
 

First, thank you Pastor Edwards for your truly balanced, Christian perspective on this movie and the books it is based on.

Second, thanks to the very interesting commentary from Drivebyposting, Aurorawatcher, Cato, Kilowatt, Don't Tread On Me, and ladykrystyna.

My take.

I have read all three books. My daughter has read them too. She was approximately 16 or so and well along in the series when she recommended them to me.

Critical disclosure: My family is dyed-in-the-wool Catholic of a traditionalist bent.

I found the first book wonderful and, had I not known what was coming, would only have sniffed at the Magisterium, wondering where Pullman was going with his ideas.

The second was intriguing and a lot of fun, but not as good as the first. Yet, a fun read. The subtle knife itself is a way-cool invention of Pullman's imagination. That's the guy in me. Lyra comes into her own, and the very important character Will comes to the fore.

Without doubt, the third book of the trilogy was a very serious downer. The anti-Christian veneer of the first two books is stripped off and erupts like a bomb in your face. (If you want a laugh, read the passages describing the demise of "God." Good gosh, is that the best he could muster after all this build-up?) But even so, some passages shone. The City of the Dead chapters, I think they were called, I had to admire for their stifling dreariness; I held a morbid fascination for their creepy feeling akin to reading H.P. Lovecraft himself. (High praise.) But one passage alone does not a good book make.

My daughter did not have her faith shaken by the books. Not one whit. We both simply enjoyed a good read, if diminishing in quality.

Our faith is much, much too strong for either of us to have been remotely affected by Pullman's ideas. We both agreed that the anti-Christian element of the books was easily the least effective as far as literature is concerned. Pullman would have done well to excise it en masse.

And then Will and Lyra as the anti-Adam & Eve (third book again). Pullman lacks no subtlety when he sets his sights on religion. He telegraphs his punches from a mile away. Fear not, Christians!

My daughter and I will see this movie and, I suspect, enjoy it. We will maintain the same moral guardianship over our souls as when we watch R-rated action-adventures, body-strewn gangster epics, and demoniacally inspired alien monster movies.