I never saw the movie. I would love to, though I don't exactly agree with the casting for Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter. For one thing, Mrs. Coulter is supposed to be all dark-haired, like Arwen or something, and Nicole Kidman is a snow-queen blond. And Daniel Craig looks too old.

But the thing I wondered was that since Lyra's got dirty-blond hair, does that mean that Lord Asriel's blond? Both parents can't be dark-haired. But he's described as panther-like, and I always pictured him as a cross between a younger Laurence Olivier (the upper-class grace) and Loki (the cool evility).

I also forgot to mention how much I love the witches and the gyptians! Part of the reason why the sequels were a little disappointing was that they didn't have such an important part. Serafina Pekkala is AWESOME.

Subtle Knife wasn't THAT bad when I reread it--at first I was a little like, okay, who is this new narrator, but Lyra's really strong voice was kept intact in the parts she did have to narrate. And Lee Scoresby's last "Alamo" stand was just too. Sad. For. Words. Pullman's death scenes are genius! Admittedly the idea of a "war on Heaven" dropped into the middle of Book 2 was a little bit startling, but not a huge deal was made of it then.

My main problem with Amber Spyglass is how A, Will becomes such a hero type while, B, Lyra no longer had much of a character except as Eve, meaning just becoming a dull romantic interest, C, Iorek lumbers in then lumbers out again in one chapter, D, the visit to the Underworld was a little too like Aragorn walking the Paths of the Dead for an unbeatable army, E, I wish Mary didn't have to call Christianity a "great mistake"--there was enough knocking of religion without having to expressly say it. The only thing that I didn't mind too much was Asriel's and Mrs. Coulter's last struggle with Metatron, because it kind of redeemed them, despite after all of their past evil deeds.