The Golden Compass (2007, USA/UK)

I wasn't expecting it to be good, but this was just terrible. More exposition than any film can possibly contain and still be any fun at all, plus there's simply no flow - scenes just pop up out of nowhere, characters speechify without any real context, and some otherwise decent actors give pretty poor performances (I'm excepting Sam Elliott here). It's obvious that the film was cut down enormously, which would account for some of the jumpiness, but I don't think even a three-hour version would have made much more sense. It's an impossible book to film, particularly since Chris Weitz guts the more metaphysical and religious complications of the original story, essentially creating yet another empty-headed adventure film. And cutting the end off? What a terrible decision. Obviously, the filmmakers were thinking that they'd get some of the difficult stuff out of the way at the beginning of a second film, but it's a pretty gutless move, and since the movie bombed at the box office, it doesn't look as if a sequel is on its way anytime soon.