The Golden Compass

The new movie based on Philip Pullmans first book in the "His Dark Materials" Trilogy, "The Golden Compass" is due on December 7th. Predictably, it's drawing the ire of Christians already, who have not seen the movie.


Philip Pullman is openly atheist, and he admits that "His Dark Materials" was largely inspired by his response to C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia", calling the series "one of the most ugly and poisonous things" he's ever read.

William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, has called the film and books:
"These books denigrate Christianity, thrash the Catholic Church and sell the virtues of atheism,"

While we can argue about whether the focus of the books is denigration of the Catholic church, what's wrong with selling the virtues of atheism? Sounds like a good idea to me.

My son loves the books, and we'll be some of the first in line to see the movie.

You can't take the sky from me...

.....There's no place I can be,
Since I found Serenity.

There's a new Collector's Edition of Serenity coming out next week. If you're not familiar with Serenity, or the too-soon canceled Firefly that preceded it, now's your chance to get in on the action (and, who knows - maybe there's a chance for a sequel?)

Shiny.

Harry Potter is back...

...and my son and niece wanted to go to the first screening, which happened to be midnight last night. Nothing like coming back to work after not going to bed until 3am. Pretty good movie though. Here's a link to the trailer:

The movie's definitely darker than previous movies - Harry and friends are all grown up now, with more adult concerns. It's a nice progression in the series. The beginning and end are very exciting, but the middle tends to drag in places. All in all, if you're a Potter fan, it's a must see.