And relax....

After the excitement of "Oh What a Lovely War" this weekend (and the After-Show party that finished at 5am - though Phil and I left at 3.30...) I dragged Phil to see the fifth Harry Potter film. Actually, that's unfair. He said he wanted to see it, but he probably wasn't quite as enthusiastic as I was...

Anyway, I really enjoyed it. The films are getting better as they get on, and I have stopped getting annoyed about it when they miss bits. In the 4th one they missed a huge and very important chunk which irritated me intensely, but in this one there are bits missing, but they are not important. I think I've realised that its easier to consider the films as "stand-alones" to the books - they are based on them, but don't tell exactly the same story. The special effects are amazing, the acting from the kids is getting better, though I wish they wouldn't bother doing the saccharine speech at the end - it makes the whole thing seems excessively cheesey.

Something that is puzzling me though - why is the film based on "His Dark Materials" called "The Golden Compass" and not "Northern Lights"?? Do they think that people won't realise its the same book, or is it like calling Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" in the US?