Reviews of The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass review

Posted : 3 months ago on 9 August 2009 07:15 (A review of The Golden Compass)

It had a lot of pieces missing and I didn't like the ending at all. I tought most of the characters didn't have many time on the screen as they should have and how it ended with a huge mistery that would be resolved in another movie.. Nah, Specially cause they won't be doing the second movie any time soon so we had an unfinished story for now. Not my thing but it was fun to watch.

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The Golden Compass review

Posted : 10 months ago on 10 January 2009 08:05 (A review of The Golden Compass)

So I completely understand that movies are not books. They are a different media all together and you get different things from them. I understand that when making a movie adaptation, it can be really difficult to please everyone because it's hard to squeeze all that content into a watchable length of time and not bore the crap out of anyone.

That said, I do think there are ways to do it. For example, you might choose to omit things from a movie that were part of the book if they are not central to the storyline. Or combine certain elements, or... whatever. I don't think they tried to do any of that in this movie. I think they just wanted to cram every scrap of the book into the movie that they just managed to give a summary of the book. I felt like the scenes were really rushed, barely able to get into a scene before being whisked off to the next event. Nicole Kidman was not very believable as Mrs Coulter. You felt there was something off with her right from the beginning when they should have made you like her, as Lyra does, at first.

All in all, I felt it was just a rushed summary of the book. I would have preferred to miss out on some key scenes and seen some deeper development of the more important points, or just a longer movie. The graphics were nice and the movie itself was pretty to watch, but overall a poor adaptation of the book. I found it at least entertaining, although if I hadn't read the book I probably would have been confused at parts. The book was excellent so I hope the movie doesn't discourage others from reading it.

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It's no Northern Lights,Compass loses direction.

Posted : 10 months, 3 weeks ago on 23 December 2008 01:32 (A review of The Golden Compass)

''It's an alethiometer. It’s a truth measure - a golden compass. It enables you to see what others wish to hide.... You can ask any sort of question you can imagine. Once you've got your question framed...''

In a parallel universe, young Lyra Belacqua journeys to the far North to save her best friend and other kidnapped children from terrible experiments by a mysterious organization.

Dakota Blue Richards: Lyra

His Dark Materials: The Northern Lights, the original name for the book, in England. What a mysterious, enticing title for a book. The Golden Compass? Well, it doesn't quite have the same effect on us, does it? The use of the American name of the book for the film really didn't falter my opinion of the film, but as early warning signs come, it doesn't get much more obvious than this. We should have assumed from the start, that this was going to be a very different venture, to the book.

''There are many universes and many Earths parallel to each other. Worlds like yours, where people's souls live inside their bodies, and worlds like mine, where they walk beside us, as animal spirits we call daemons.''

As a huge fan of Philip Pullman's epic trilogy, I had been eagerly anticipating this film adaptation for a long while. I had fallen in love with the books a while back, not due to the fantastical elements, but due to the way it introduced this fantastical parallel universe to the reader in a slow, subtle, familiar way and made it feel real and tangible. The books are gritty, rugged and at times violent, and the stories' themes are philosophical and even spiritual in a way. It grieves me to say that the film misses the point, concentrating instead, on the fantasy, the action and the giant talking polar bears.
Franchises and series like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings have never apologized about their overt paganism. Likewise, The Chronicles of Narnia have never been accused of being subtle as a Christian allegory. These series, in both literary and film forms, have been massive hits due to their unapologetic natures that speak truths to their ardent fan bases. British writer Philip Pullman's darkly subversive anti-religious fantasy books have also been hugely successful, more so overseas than here in the States. Stripped of the books' overt atheistic messages, The Golden Compass takes a reverse psychology approach in its film treatment and oddly positions itself as an apology for Pullman's work. The result is a tepid affair that joins a long line of fantasy films about children discovering they are the chosen ones destined to save the world. At least this film is refreshing in its stance on girl-power as represented in the main character Lyra, played wonderfully by newcomer Dakota Blue Richards, who apparently is a graduate of the Dakota Fanning school of acting. Whether or not this tactic to strip the film of its soul (much like the Magesiterium strips children of their daemons) will make the film broadly appealing enough to warrant a franchise has yet to be determined.

The Golden Compass manages to remain dull and unimaginative. Its idea that these people (who inhabit an alternate 'Earth) have their souls on their outside is an interesting one, yet on screen, we are supposed to relate to these characters by way of their animal accomplices, for instance: Lord Asriel's (Craig) is a beastly feline: strong and powerful who knows what's what; Marisa Coulter (Kidman) has a monkey of some sort; suggesting not a playful and cheeky persona but one that could change from good to aggressive very quickly; the other example is of the hero; Lyra Belacqua (Richards) whose daemon keeps changing from cat to bird to chipmunk suggesting she hasn't quite 'found herself' yet although the fact she's only about ten probably has something to do with this. Fine, you think but the faceless enemy soldiers that guard utopian government looking buildings as disturbing experiments go on inside are all accompanied with either Doberman dogs or wolves – do the guards not have personalities? This is a glaring lack of consistency.

''It's an alethiometer. It tells the truth. You are meant to have it. You keep the alethiometer to yourself, it's of the utmost importance to yourself, to all of us, and perhaps to all creation.''

The actual character hero of Lyra was also a problem. There are too many scenes that rely on child acting in this film and what's more, Lyra goes about her adventure as if she's twenty years older that what she actually is. She is smarter than she should be; braver and more of a leader than she should be. More often than not, she achieves things adult characters cannot: persuading the polar bear to join them; destroying the 'cutting' device and being able to negotiate her way out of death with a king polar bear who is a hundred times more powerful than she is. Of course if she was any older, the film would be Tomb Raider mixed with Narnia but that's a different story. I'm sure there was faithful material to the book somewhere in The Golden Compass but there's me thinking it was perhaps going to go down the route of Indiana Jones or The Mummy, how wrong I was. The film sets up its idea for its narrative in a similar adventure way, what with the mentioning of the alternative world (our world) and the giving of the compass to Lyra and yet it totally ignores its roots from here on. This film basically turns into a recruitment process with Kidman's and Craig's characters hovering around in the background although never creating a presence, this is cannon fodder for nine year olds, but then there's the complicated narrative and the fact other films of this genre, were for people of all ages anyway.

What we are led to believe is that in this world, they haven't made the technological advancements like cars and aeroplanes (their cars resemble horse and carts without the horses and they fly around in blimps) yet build vast utopias, that still find room to house criminals of some description, whose main aim is to 'cut' away the souls of children at the first mention of the word 'dust' – yes, it's that bizarre. Mangled in with this, the character of Iorek Byrnison (McKellan - who is a CGI Polar Bear hilariously resembling a down and out P.I. in a film noir when first introduced) is given a sub-plot involving him rediscovering his 'armour' (metaphor for masculinity) and from there, he develops into a really guilty example of a fatherly figure for Lyra after it's established she lost her father previously. Thrown in amongst all this tosh is a CGI fist-fight between two polar bears trying to prove who is 'king'.

It is the right time to mention the cast: Nicole Kidman delivers an eerie and chilling rendition of Marisa Coulter; a person who knows people high up in whatever hierarchy the school has. She also seems to get nastier and nastier as the film progresses but some of her lines she's given do not aid her in her career: "I'll find you, Lyra(!)" Oh, how evil. But the biggest disappointment is Daniel Craig who's present for about three scenes and then vanishes – this'll be the easiest pay-cheque he'll ever pick up, unless they make a sequel. In short, avoid this film even if you are a fan of the genre.

''One compass remains, however, and only one who can read it.''

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Poor adaptation

Posted : 1 year, 4 months ago on 3 July 2008 12:20 (A review of The Golden Compass)

A poorly made mess of a movie that attempts to stuff far too much into the length than possible and still doesn't even begin to get very interesting. No identifiable wounds from any sort of fighting for the supposed benefit of the children either.

On the positive side the world it portrays seems rather fascinating and the actors and the realization of this alternate universe are fairly well done. I'm sure reading the books is a far more enjoyable experience.

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better than expected

Posted : 1 year, 6 months ago on 3 May 2008 07:25 (A review of The Golden Compass)

I can't believe the movie got such bad ratings. Books are books, movies are movies, these are adaptations for the big screen. People still enjoyed Harry Potter's books and movies despite the fact that they differed slightly.
Now, I admit I haven't read the Northern Lights series, so I'm really reviewing the Golden Compass movie.

As a movie, it's an enjoyable one for the entire family. In fact, we all sat together to watch it and looked forward to seeing it. Even though some of the CGI isn't particularly well done (I'm thinking of the bears and the wolves particularly), the rest was pretty amazing.
I loved the concept of the inner daemons and how it was shown in the movie.
The acting is superb, especially that of Dakota Blue Richards. I never will say that teenagers can't act anymore; they obviously can, with the right director. It's too bad Daniel Craig didn't have a bigger role, he's excellent as Lyra's "uncle".

Watch with the family. Everyone should enjoy this film for its magical story.


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The Golden Compass review

Posted : 1 year, 8 months ago on 21 February 2008 07:38 (A review of The Golden Compass)

Empty twine of unsubstantiated pathos in skirling garment, as an alibi. Pity..

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The Golden Compass review

Posted : 1 year, 8 months ago on 18 February 2008 10:38 (A review of The Golden Compass)

The Northern Lights books are brilliant, my favorite books. They should have never made a movie out of it, the story is way to complicated. So that movie is nothing but some stupid fairytale with pretty pictures, it just doesn't show what the story is about. It was boring and disappointing.

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Bitterly Disappointing

Posted : 1 year, 11 months ago on 8 December 2007 07:59 (A review of The Golden Compass)

I am a fan of the book, but will admit that it is not brilliant writing. But there is something in the book that makes it gripping and intelligent. But it is very complicated. And there was no way that they could stay completely true to the book. But the screen adaptation has lost that "something" completely. The special effects are marvelous, and costuming and stylization was pretty much how I imagined it. They changed the "Church" to the "Magasterium" and never talk about Original Sin, like in the book, but I wasn't surprised by that (being a bit controversial). But I think the thing that bothered me the most is the way they dumbed it down and made it too obvious. Part of the magic of the book is figuring out things, and that never happens here. And maybe the fatal flaw of the movie was there inability to impress on the viewer how important each person's daemon was to them, how sacred that it, how much a part of the person this creature is. My husband (never read the book) thought this may have been one of the worst movies he ever saw. I just know that it broke my heart.

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