The Golden Compass

Review by Adam Frazier

The latest British fantasy novel to become a box office money magnet is The Golden Compass, the first book of Philip Pullman's expansive, controversial His Dark Materials trilogy. Whereas other fantasy epics like The Chronicles of Narnia or Harry Potter received well over two hours to unravel their plot, The Golden Compass'' wraps up its story in under two hours and feels incredibly rushed and hollow.

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. Only time and box office returns will tell if The Golden Compass was a hit or a miss for New Line – and the future of The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass’ film adaptations lie in the balance.

3.5 out of 5

The Golden Compass
Australian release: 26th December, 2007
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards, Ben Walker, Freddie Highmore, Ian McKellan
Director: Chris Weitz
Website: Click here.