ROTTEN TOMATOES: Vatican Gloats Over Weak Performance of The Golden Compass

Vatican Gloats Over Weak Performance of The Golden Compass

by Jeff Giles | December 20, 2007

Summary

Attention, filmgoers who have seen and enjoyed The Golden Compass: According to The Vatican, you're either "dishonest" or you haven't been "gifted with a critical spirit." Back to Article

(61-80 of 100 posts) | Reply

Cogliostro writes:
on Dec 20 2007 12:12 PM

The Vatican is always good for a un-intended laugh.

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ImaRobot writes:
on Dec 20 2007 12:22 PM

Jasper:
nobody (i don't think is calling you ignorant for your beliefs on Catholicism. They're calling you ignorant for saying things like: "an institution that has so much blood on his hands you can't even describe it anymore" and "we don't even talked about the constant gay bashing and don't respecting women."
Unless English is not your first language or you are eight, this does come off as idiocy.

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AlbertBrodsky writes:
on Dec 20 2007 12:46 PM

Jesus, maybe if RT could come up with some actual news so we could change the ****ing subject.

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TombstoneLawDog writes:
on Dec 20 2007 12:52 PM

For a hot second, I was impressed by the passionate scholarship this debate is ushering forth on RT, from both sides..

..Then someone spelled it 'conSerned.' (It's with a 'C,' for those who were concerned)

Lord, you gave them spell-check, but they do not see (or spell).

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thamoviemann writes:
on Dec 20 2007 01:04 PM

The movie is doing excellent overseas though, what about that.

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VML writes:
on Dec 20 2007 01:22 PM

what's wrong with free thinking, Vatican?

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StupidSmurf writes:
on Dec 20 2007 01:33 PM

Sorry, as many issues I have with the Catholic Church, I at least can't fault them for gloating.

Come on....What if someone came up to you and said "I don't like you and I wish you were dead. Not only you, but also any organizations that support and promote you. I want to see them gone. And these beliefs are in my work, which incidentally, has been made into a movie."

And then the movie does mediocre business at the box office.

I don't know about you, but I'd be going all Nelson Muntz on that 'someone'.

Now THAT would be a good marketing move for the Vatican. Selling T-shirts showing Nelson Muntz wearing a bishop's mitre and pointing at an armored bear while saying "HA-ha!". Why, they'd make millions! Thousands even!

And now, one question: Define "excellent" overseas. What are the numbers? What are the returns? Show me some facts.

And an observation: Personally I think the movie's tanking because it, well, just isn't very good. Just how many fantasy epics have we been exposed to in the last five years? Frankly, I think the movie just isn't good enough to overcome the public's over-exposure to the genre.

Interestingly enough, the Vatican film critic's line about the movie being "....devoid of any emotion..." seems to mirror the complaint I've seen from a few reviews linked from right here at good old RT. The movie has no soul, no spark or fire.

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mouse_clicker writes:
on Dec 20 2007 01:41 PM

Smurf: According to BoxOfficeMojo (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=goldencompass.htm), the movie has made roughly $91 million overseas, from roughly two weeks since it first opened anywhere. That's twice as much as it's made domestically. So it's quite good-- don't know if I'd say excellent, per say-- but still good. Those are the numbers, anyhow.

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arendr writes:
on Dec 20 2007 02:12 PM

I heard Jesus got some pretty bad reviews when he first started out. I mean, those critics absolutely crucified him! But he sort of turned into a cult-classic, and now everyone wants to change their original reviews.

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StupidSmurf writes:
on Dec 20 2007 02:15 PM

In reply to this comment (#1379184)
Excellent! Thanks, Mouse! That's just what I was looking for.

Yes, it's looking pretty good world-wide. I think perhaps the expectation was that this movie was going to be some kind of blockbuster.

The only explanation I can even attempt here, is in the form of guessing. Perhaps more movies open/are available in the U.S., and thus the competition is stiffer here in the USA? Again, take the idea of possibly jaded American audiences, coupled with more choices, and you get mediocre American box office performance. Ah well..just a guess, anyway.

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Novastar. writes:
on Dec 20 2007 02:45 PM

The next movie will be called 'The Golden Compassion of the Christ',that will piss off more people.

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kROCK writes:
on Dec 20 2007 02:47 PM

I still can't believe they said the works are devoid of hope. The entire trilogy is about hope. I happen to know many other people who are Christians, and they happened to love the books like me. I mean, not to bash the Bible or anything, but there's quite a few stories in there that are less than hopeful.

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elmokajaky writes:
on Dec 20 2007 03:16 PM

The Vatican needs to get back to molesting altar boys and STFU.

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gamejediben writes:
on Dec 20 2007 03:22 PM

It failed because the movie sucked. End of story. Not because the christians told everyone to not go see it. The books weren't that much better either. They weren't incredibly original and there are several better fantasy stories out there already. J.R.R. Tolkein, C.S. Lewis, Robert Jordan and J.K. Rowling are simply much better writers. Who cares about "The Golden Compass" and "Eregon" when we fantasy fans really want to see "The Wheel of Time" series and "The Hobbit" made into films.

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cjjojay writes:
on Dec 20 2007 03:26 PM

While I don't agree with this instantaneous bashing, I understand that they are just not sitting down on something they don't like. At the end of the day, these books are bashing catholicism, which is undeniable. I am a devote Christian, but I also loved the books (though I think the story looses its way a bit at the end). I have nothing against catholics, but there have been overbearing figures from that religion. The problem is when people overuse power the religion gets blamed for it. Comments like these only give people fuel to blame it more. If another form of Christianity was the most common and the same situation happened we would get the same response. A nondenominational Christian overusing power is just as bad as a Catholic doing it. To get biblical, Jesus blamed the pharisees who overused power, but who did he say the most famous verse in the bible (John 3:16) to? A pharisee! Pullman is justified in his disdain, but he seems to think that the religion is the main reason for what he does not like in it. Instead of putting people away, shouldn't we accept people like this more? Lets show him that he is wrong, not that he is evil. I'd rather help him get to heaven than condemn him to hell. He is such a smart person, I'd hate to loose that! (Haha, ok, that sounded arrogant, but you get the point)

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cjjojay writes:
on Dec 20 2007 03:31 PM

In reply to this comment (#1379849)
Anyway, the movie just was not promoted well, plus the books have more of an underground following anyway. I wish it would have been more successful, but oh well. If I become a famous director someday people I announce that I will try to make "The Subtle Knife"! I'm sure I'll get some support.

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renodc writes:
on Dec 20 2007 03:39 PM

As a Christian, I find it rather irritating that the Vatican is attacking people as being "not gifted with a critical spirit" when just the existence of the Pope and the Vatican itself flies in the face of all that Christianity stands for. The Vatican and most (I said most, not all) of the Traditional Catholic Church are nothing more than Modern Day Pharisees and Sadducees. Biblically, the Pope has no authority, Bishops have no authority, Priests have no authority, the Saints have no authority and Mary has no authority. All authority is in Jesus. The Vatican is simply a political structure that has devised a way to use parts of the Bible (primarily Old Testament law) and their own "made up" theology to hold authority over people. If you think Philip Pullman and Dan Brown are rough on the Catholic church, then try reading some of the works of Martin Luther.

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arendr writes:
on Dec 20 2007 04:01 PM

"If you think Philip Pullman and Dan Brown are rough on the Catholic church, then try reading some of the works of Martin Luther."

Probably the smartest point made in this thread so far.

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omelette writes:
on Dec 20 2007 04:29 PM

In reply to this comment (#1377911)
Wow.
I'm not even Catholic, and this comment pissed me off.
Sure, there's some total creeps in the church, but ignorant people like you paint the whole church to be bad. It's really not. Do some research before making such harsh and idiotic claims.

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RottenRob writes:
on Dec 20 2007 04:47 PM

In reply to this comment (#1378717)
spnw85, stop being so thoughtful and rational and just let everybody vent randomly, won't you?

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