The Golden Compass (2007)

This Movie Is About: a young girl named Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) who loves adventure, so long as it's within the confines of Jordan College run by the Magisterium. Where is Jordan College you might ask? Well, Jordan College, along with everything else in the world exist in a parallel universe. Everything is similar to our world but just a little different. Okay, back to Lyra. So she hangs around with her friends and her Daemon, Pantalaimon, which is a little pet that everyone is born with. The person's daemon is their soul and if one hurts, so does the other. Lyra and Pan are always causing mischief until they meet Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman), who is a instructor at Jordan College. She tells Lyra that she's going to the North to study something. Rumor has it that's she's going to find the mysterious Dust that circles the area. Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) has already left on the journey. He proposed a few days ago that this Dust is the key to another dimension, thousands of dimensions, in fact. What's more interesting is that Dust is what connects the people to their Daemons. The adventure begins on the wrong foot when Lyra learns of Ms. Coulter's connections with the shady Magisterium and their involvement with the recent kidnappings around Jordan College. It's not until Lyra escapes from Ms. Coulter does she find her true calling. Oh, yeah and she has a gold compass but that's not important.

You Should Watch This Movie Because: it's based on the same-titled Carnegie Prize-winning book. The world is fantastical but familiar so it's easy to make the leap in believing that this world can actually exist. What's more, everyone wants to go on an adventure in a magical world and experience all the fun and excitement it has to offer! I mean, if I was in a magical new universe I definitely would want to go explore it. And this movie brings you front and center into the action and takes you into the deepest caves of danger. It's all very exciting stuff and having the story unfold through the eyes of a little girl adds more depth to the story. Then you have the golden compass. I don't know what this thing really does or how powerful or important it is, but so far it looks pretty neat and if I had a golden compass I definitely would be pretty happy.

What's Hot: The digital design for the Daemons is handled superbly. They come alive in their own way and since everyone has one, it must've have taken a lot of work to get them all in the shots and use them effectively to show us what their connection to their hosts is all about.The action sequences are handled nicely and there were times when you really thought you were in the North. Or maybe it was just because the theatre was really cold. Either way, the atmosphere is great and the whole visual experience of the book has been translated on film quite well.

What's Not Hot: At first, I just thought I was confused because I didn't read the book and wasn't familiar with the world. Then I thought: "wait a minute, I shouldn't have to have read the book to enjoy a movie." And that is where this movie fails. If you haven't read the book like me, you will definitely be confused at what's going on. This movie doesn't explain the world very well. Or a better way to put it, it doesn't explain the whole world very well. There are times when they would just sit around and talk and talk about what the world is like and what they have to do. And then there are times when they just do something or someone would show up like Serafina Pekkala (Eva Green), say something and then show up later with no solid reason for being there. It seems like all the characters are just in there to be on this adventure for no reason. The only real reason anyone has to go to the North is Lyra. Everyone else just seems to go help her without knowing anything. Perhaps I missed something there but there was just so much expositional hemorrhaging that I got lost in the plot and the purpose for the characters. This is a trilogy and at times it felt like it. That is, this movie didn't take care of itself. Instead, it spent large parts of it talking about things that will happen in the future, things that we don't see in this movie. Well, that's no good. Each film has to stand on it's own and this is where this movie doesn't come together. Lord Asriel seems like a pretty bad ass dude with his Daemon but we never see him past the 15 minute mark. Come on! And even though this film works structurally, it just felt the end goal and the resolution is small in comparison to what's going to happen. That's good in the sense that each part of the trilogy is supposed to build to a grand climax in the third movie, but because they were trying too hard to set up the next movies, and talking about all the great stuff that's to come, the climax of this film just felt insignificant in comparison and not all that important.

Last Comments: While The Golden Compass is a marvel to look at and has a lot of exciting visual treats, the story just isn't there. I think this is a case when the people behind the film were too involved with the novel and really wanted to bring the same experience to the big screen. I think that's where this movie fails and a movie like Lord of the Rings succeeds because the makers recognized that it's a different experience. There is no way a novel like this can be fully translated into film format and it shows in this attempt. There are parts where it is just downright boring with the talking about what's to come and then there are parts when it's just confusing because there was no explanation of why people are doing what they're doing. I think that this film will be fun for children and lovers of the novel to see their characters come to life. To see that Ice Bear fight and hear Ian McKellen do the voice of Iorek Byrnison is treat but there are times when it's just too much story and not enough at other times, not enough. This movie felt like a big set up for what's to come making seem insignificant and even unnecessary to watch.

Breaking it Down:
Story: 6.0 (Philip Pullman: novel, Chris Weitz: screenplay)
Direction: 8.0 (Chris Weitz)
Acting: 7.8
Cinematography: 8.8
Music/Sound: 6.8

Entertainment Value: 6.5 (not an average)