This movie seems soooooooooooooo cool! And they put girl as the lead superhero! WOW!!!

I can hardly wait to see it. 

Mmm...I'll reserve judgement.

I thought the first book was fantastic, and Pullman undoubtedly came up with some fascinating characters and original concepts. BUT

Will came along and stole a lot of the spotlight from Lyra in the last two books. Ms. Coulter had an inexplicable 360* turnaround to maternal feelings. The world was saved by 13 year olds having sex.

Hopefully, the movie will streamline a lot of that. Nicole Kidman's hot, as well!

Okay, I really don't want to get sucked in to another fantasy series where the women start out strong but end up only as sidekicks or helpers.  Is Lyra the main heroine or does the boy come along to help her out and then steal the show?  The sex thing from the spoiler above doesn't give me a lot of hope.

Sorry, I just finished reading Harry Potter and am bitter about the immense crapitude of all the women's roles by the finale. 

There are strong women throughout His Dark Materials. Witches, Ex-Nuns, Scientists, Mothers. Though in some parts they do play a secondary role, (when the story focuses on Will and his father) Lyra is still the central character, and the series starts and ends with her.

 And i never got the impression from the book that the kids had sex.....

 i can't decide if i'm excited about this film or not. There are so many places where it could just all go wrong. Though it will be interesting to see the religious reactions to The Amber Spyglass, and the gay angels.

-to love another person is to see the face of god-

Yes, in book two a boy comes along and acts heroically.  But, I don't think the addition of his character does anything to damper the credibility of Pullman's girl-hero, Lyra.  I really liked Will's character and it didn't bother me at all when those chapters popped up that gave him a bit more verbage.  In fact, his addition only broadens the universe that the author has created.  Lyra remains the protagonist throughout, even when she's not on the page. 

I'm really excited to see how this film turns out.  Will they keep the anti organized religion message that the novels had?  It was such a massive part of the story.

One things for sure, Iorek the polar bear looks wicked awesome.

Unless you like nihilism and some not-that-well-disguised rantings, I wouldn't be in a rush to read the books. Great premise, but depressing as hell. If I want to read miserable stories about how you just can't win against the powers-that-be, I can read the newspapers.

I'm hoping the movies have a lighter touch, although I still haven't made up my mind on them.

I'm sssssoooo looking foward to see this one.

I haven't read the book eighter, nor the Harry Potter series. And I'm not embarassed by this fact.

As I always am when they make movies out of books I love. I got the Golden Compass on Christmas and had it finished by the time I went to bed. The next two Christmases I did the same thing with the other books. They were my Harry Potters when I was young - waiting until the next one was out was horrible, made worse by the fact that it was apparently only me waiting.

The preview looked good to me, though I was a bit concerned because I did not see any daemons walking around with the characters. I know they are in the movie, and they showed a little daemon fight at the end, but still, part of the whole point was that you never see a person without their daemon.

I also agree that while the latter two books are less girl-heavy than the GC, there is still an emphasis on Lyra, so it's still not like Will comes in and takes over for her. Personally I hated the ending and I definitely liked the first book best of all, maybe because of Lyra, but I wouldn't worry about getting into it.

I hadn't thought about the allegory of them having sex before - it didn't occur to me when I read it, but now I think about it it totally could have been what was happening. Interesting thought. But anyway, I don't think that was what saved the world, it was a side product, saving the world affected them, and led to them falling in love (and maybe having sex...).

I absolutely adored these books when I was younger, and I'm sure, if I reread them, I would still think they were fantastic.

I remember being upset that Harry Potter was getting a movie, and all this recognition when the His Dark Materials books were sitting right there. And now it's actually happening.

Very exciting, I must say. I really liked Lyra, and even when Will was in the picture, he was a good character as well.

I can't wait to go see it- I'll be the first in line, I assure you. :D

And now, I think I'm going to go re-read those books.

Yep, I'm a bit worried.  The books rock, but like every fantasy movie except LOTR, there is no way they'll be able to recreate such a wonderful universe in a movie. 

 Plus they seem to have the steampunk aesthetic all wrong.  It's all like glowing white light and gold gilding and the feel of the book is much grittier, much dirtier. 

Casting Nicole Kidman as Ms. Coulter is genious because she such an ice queen, but Daniel Craig as Azrael?  Really?  No, really?!  Weird. . . .

 Really can't wait for this! I'm still stuck somewhere in book three but I love the setting and it seems mighty cool!

Who you gonna be if you can't be yourself,
you can't get it from t.v., you can't force it on
anybody else.-- Ani Difranco