Critique

As always, Gaiman’s imagination reaches nearly no bounds. However, what makes him such a great storyteller is not the ability to imagine, but to take those concepts and ideas and flesh them into an enjoyable story. One of the largest flaws with books in the fantasy and science fiction genres is that the imaginative concept is great, but the story itself is poorly written and can’t carry the concept to its fullest spectrum. Gaiman’s work, on the other hand, is both imaginative and well conceived. 

The Graveyard Book is no exception. Bod seems to be a true to life character who still struggles with the same problems that face any teenager growing up. His, though, are often compounded by the heightened danger that accompanies being sought after by a murderer and raised in the world of the dead. I recommend this book to all readers 11+.

Critique

Although the story is a bit short and on the boring side, especially in comparison to the magnanimity of the previous trilogy, it’s a good read for those who are interested in more stories about Lyra and the world that Pullman created. The book itself, however, is a wonderful collector’s item, cloth bound with a pullout map of Oxford and a few other elements from the world and characters in it. This is more like a ‘historical companion’ to a much larger story, and the insight it gives into Oxford can certainly expand the imagination and understanding one has when approaching the trilogy.

The other books in this series are The Golden Compass (book 1), The Subtle Knife (book 2), The Amber Spyglass (book 3), and Once Upon a Time in the North as a companion novel.

Critique

In part, this film didn’t do as well as I’m sure New Line Cinema has hoped because of the perceived anti-Christian sentiment that weaves itself throughout the story. Let’s face it, the group that is most enthusiastic about these fantasy movies is often Christian considering that this genre was largely born from the minds of two of the most famous Christian men of the 20^th century, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein. This group of Christian parents are quick to jump on the band wagon of anything they perceive as lining up with their worldview, and even quicker to denounce en masse anything that does not.

However, a bigger factor to its unsuccessful flight both for in theater and DVD sales is the simple fact that it’s not nearly as compelling as the books. Overall, the story moves too quickly and doesn’t explore the beautiful and original fantasy world that Pullman created. Movies like Harry Potter can carry through the naysayers because the imaginative world is captured impeccably on the screen. That’s largely what will make or break movies like these. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the two Narnia films thus far, that Harry Potter films, and even Coraline have given a little more time and energy toward taking the text and bringing it to life on screen both in storyline and special effects.

There are some great special effects, and the polar bear fight is great. However, it moves through the plot too quickly and doesn’t take the time to establish the world and the characters there within. Give it another 30 minutes and all of that is easily accomplishable, plus the film doesn’t have to end in a weird and awkward place that just seems like it’s cutting everything off completely. End it where Pullman ended the book.