Emma Burton (Tiggercat22)

My first introduction to the series came from the 2007 movie and I actually quite enjoyed it ( was 12 at the time). I still do to a degree - I just find it entertaining despite its flaws. Then I tried reading the books but just couldn't make it through and never tried again. This series started ok for me and I was enjoying it. First 5 episodes? Fine! Thanks the movie adaptation of the first book I remembered what was going on pretty quickly and figured the creators must be taking their own creative liberties with it too. But come episode 6 I was disappointed. The whole episode felt lackluster. When Lyra and Pan are put into the machine in the movie I felt like she was actually going to get seperated from him - I was scared. They really played on the impact of the seperation here but in the episode the sense of danger that should be there was gone and Lyra looked unfazed. The epic battle in the movie at Bolvangar with stakes and tension that had me on the edge of my seat for many years, was just.... nothing in this. It was rushed and over quite quickly. Didn't feel impactful at all. But I let it slide because it's one episode and sometimes it happens but I was disappointed again come episode 7. The bear fight in the movie was another moment of tension and edge of your seat action that I loved. But in this episode it was rushed and lost any impactful feeling it had. I was again expecting it to be an epic and exciting moment and it was...nothing. The idea to have them without armour bugged me a bit too but maybe there was a sense to it or that's how it was in the book. But the whole scene in the movie gave me a sense of how powerful these bears are. This version didn't feel like a fight to the death at all. I'm just getting nothing from these moments. Iorek also just became King of the bears and yet it was glossed over like it wasn't important. It's like these pivotal moments are just side quests you do in a video game before continuing the main story. They shouldn't feel like that because they're evidently not. I'm not expecting this to be like the movie at all. But it's from the same source material and moments of action should be full of action. Impactful moments should be impactful. The pacing I feel, especially in the two recent episodes, is way too fast. It feels like they are rushing through because they need to add things quickly and it's making me feel sort of disappointed. The tension has disappeared and characters feel disconnected from each other with little relationship development. Personally I feel like there are some things the movie actually conveyed and did better - but that's just me. There are just basic things this series is currently lacking.