Okay, that wasn’t as bad as I expected; but it wasn’t that much better, either. The script does an interesting job of moving stuff around to help smooth things out, and exposition in general is pretty well handled, but it all moves way too fast, just as could be expected — and as a result becomes pretty much boring… but very nice to watch.

I suppose it’s pointless to start nitpicking on casting choices when you’re viewing a movie adaptation of a book you enjoyed, but I still think there could have been much more interesting casting choices for Mrs. Coulter; I also dislike Pan’s voice, think McKellen doesn’t really work as Iorek (his voice doesn’t really scream of raw, muscular power, does it?), and hate the music.

Just like many adaptations of long, epic books, this could have been made much better by just splitting the story into two movies instead of one. The funny thing is I’m not used to being on this side of the fence, watching a movie after I’ve read the book.