Zach and I saw Stardust at a matinee with our friend Fred the other day. I enjoyed the movie a lot; it was beautiful to look at, filled with the supersaturated colors and awe-inspiringly mythic landscapes you get with a big CGI budget, and also tremendously enjoyable as a quest and love story.

I hope, however, that fantasy doesn’t wear out its welcome. To judge from the trailers we saw (The Dark Is Rising, The Spiderwick Chronicles, and a card about The Golden Compass), we are in for a spate of FX-intensive films about young people who Open the Gateway to Another World and/or Discover Their Mystical Destiny.

I’m a huge admirer of the Pullman series and am hoping that the film of The Golden Compass holds a candle–or, better yet, a candelabrum– to the book.