10 Unreleased Movie Cuts We Want To See After The Snyder Cut

Any movie that features Ians McKellen and McShane voicing heavily-armored polar bears has no right to be this dull, so it was almost impressive to see just how much studio interference had adversely affected The Golden Compass.

Hastily green-lit with a $180m budget to capitalize on the market for big-budget adaptations of fantasy novels, New Line decided to get involved when somebody finally got around to telling them that Phillip Pullman's source material was frequently and not-so-subtly critical of organized religion.

In a panic, the higher-ups demanded that all of these elements be removed in order to avoid offending anyone, which contributed to the overwhelming sense of banality that plagued the theatrical release. Director Chris Weitz admitted that trying to be faithful to the book had put him at odds with the studio, and in these sort of situations the money men always seem to win.

Christianity Today, the Catholic League, the Southern Baptist Theological Society and the Free Methodist Church all publicly denounced The Golden Compass, and maybe the movie would have fared much better if it had generated a little controversy.

Perhaps the groups in question should have just waited to see a more faithful adaptation for themselves, instead of instantly clutching their pearls and denouncing the entire production as an act of heresy from the word go.