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The
story is a mish-mash of fantasy standards. A young orphan named Lyra
Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) is living with scholars at Oxford’s
Jordan College. This isn’t our world’s London, however, but a parallel
universe’s. In this world a person’s soul walks beside them, contained
within the body of an animal known as a daemon.
Young Lyra is
thrown into a ‘perilous adventure’ when her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel
Craig) gives a presentation to the scholars, speaking of a mysterious
substance known as Dust. This isn’t the kind of dust you’ll find on my
exercise equipment, but a more otherworldly kind of particle.
Asriel
plans to travel north to study the source of Dust. The north just
happens to be the home of Ice Bears, who are kind of like the Coca-Cola
brand of bears except they wear heavy body armor and rip people limb
from limb.
Meanwhile some local kids in Lyra’s neighborhood are
disappearing. It seems a group known as the Gobblers are taking them to
do experiments on them. Lyra’s best friend Roger is among the children
taken, which spurs her into action.
Lyra meets Marisa Coulter
(Nicole Kidman) at a party thrown by the Master of Jordan College.
Coulter is a refined, elegant temptress who lures Lyra into going north
with her – offering an assistant position in order to find out what
Dust is. First off - never trust a beautiful woman. Secondly, never
trust Nicole Kidman. It’s those eyes man.
We learn you can’t
trust Coulter, as she is in league with some overly evil guys known as
the Magisterium (aka Catholic Church) who make sure Asriel is
imprisoned for his prying into the mysteries of Dust. This causes Lyra
to go on a mission to free her uncle and friend Roger from their
zealous captors, and she brings quite an entourage with her.
First
there’s a band of Gyptians, then a clan of witches (led by the
beautiful Eva Greene), a Texan aeronaut named Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliot)
and armored bear Ioerk Byrnison, voiced by Sir Ian McKellen.
From
here, you get the gist of what is going to happen. Lyra will find out
why Dust is so important while her armored bear gets to rip would-be
captors in half with his gigantic paws.
Fans of Pullman’s
writing will find plenty of bits and pieces to enjoy in this film,
though the overall experience will probably be unsatisfying. Director
and screenwriter Chris Weitz (who happens to be the executive producer
of the American Pie trilogy)
presents a rather generic-looking film at times with a screenplay that
is messy and strays from its source considerably.
That’s the bad news. The good news is there are some actual triumphs in The Golden Compass.
Kidman and Craig are perfect as Marisa Coulter and Lord Asriel while
Dakota Blue Richards embodies the role of Lyra. Then there’s the
special effects. In a world filled with animal embodiment of a person’s
soul, we are treated to talking creatures of all kinds. From sparrows,
ferrets and golden monkeys to snow leopards and ice bears, the special
effects in this film are consistently convincing and set The Golden Compass apart from other talking-animal kid flicks.
The
film serves as a paint-by-numbers approach to the fantasy genre and
will certainly please little ones who are amazed by talking animals and
magical mischief.
Overall the script felt over-simplified for
newcomers to the story and didn’t satisfy fans of Pullman’s series.
Adult moviegoers who haven’t read the book may find the film’s plot to
be muddled and confusing at times.
It seems New Line Cinema tried frantically to push The Golden Compass as the first film in a trilogy that would be the next Lord of the Rings.
It didn't work and the flick took a dive at the US box office, with
international sales barely making it back it's cash – the future
of The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass’ film adaptations now lie in the balance. EXTRAS with Sean Lynch
When
a company want to squeeze the cash out of you in order to sell a few
extra "2 Disc Edition" copies, they really don't hold back.
The extras on the single disc release are scare. REALLY scare. All on offer there is a preview for the upcoming Journey To The Centre Of The Earth 3D (a film which claims to be the first live-action 3D film ever... but it looks exactly like Spy Kids and Shark Girl vs Lava Boy).
So
is the two disc edition worth it? It's a matter of opinion really - how
much did you love this movie? The second disc is jam packed with
featurrettes covering every aspect of the movie. Sometimes those things
are great - but recently - they are about as enticing as deleted scenes.
Conclusion:
Movie 70% Extras: 65%
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