In the same weekend I had to review one of the best and one of the worst movies of the year. On the one hand was Juno, which overcame an annoying first five minutes to become a really, really enjoyable, original, engrossing, hilarious movie - in my head, it keeps flip-flopping with Into the Wild as the best movie of the year.

On the other hand was Revolver, a colossally stupid movie that actually made me angry because it stars Jason Statham, whom I usually really like.

And then somewhere in the middle was The Golden Compass, which was good but ultimately felt like a pretty generic fantasy movie.

In the beginning of my review I touch a little on the controversy Compass has had - some Catholic groups are calling for a boycott on the grounds that it's anti-religious, and while the movie itself is not, don't get all self-righteous about crazy Christians being intolerant just yet. The source material is very, very anti-religious, which of course is perfectly allowed and actually fairly interesting. But don't get mad at Catholics for being offended by a fantasy trilogy that calls Christianity "a very powerful and convincing mistake."

On the other hand, those calling for the boycott are saying that the movie stripped away the anti-religious themes on purpose - to "trick" parents into subsequently buying the books for their children for Christmas. So let's see, either (A) New Line Cinema is spearheading a conspiracy to turn children into atheists, or (B) New Line Cinema wanted to make a fantasy movie to make lots of money. Hmm...

As always, both sides are full of idiots. Either way, go watch Juno instead.