| THE GOLDEN COMPASS |
 2007 - UK / USADirector: Chris Weitz
- Reviewed by Linda
But The Golden Compass, for someone like myself who has not actually read the books, comes across as a curious blend of Lord of the Rings and The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, but pretends to be aiming for a Chronicles of Narnia audience. In other words, it has a complex mythology that left me somewhat baffled; has the freaky/scary aspect of kids being kidnapped, brainwashed, and basically tortured; and culminates in a large battle where one, two, three, FOUR groups jump into the fray. Uh... what? The premise of the story, from what I could gather, is that young Lyra Belacqua (a rather uninteresting Dakota Blue Richards) is a sort of Chosen Child. She is an orphan being raised at a college that looks suspiciously like Oxford University. However, as this is a parallel universe (quite literally, though the characters apparently don't know it yet), people walk around with critter-sidekicks called daemons that represent a reflection of their own soul, if you will, as well as their conscience. These talking animals, ranging from insects to wolves to rabbits, depending on their owners, are rather shoddily animated in CGI, considering the budget, but I suppose the filmmakers saved their pennies for another major character... Anyways, Lyra and her daemon Pan are picked up by a glamorous Mrs. Coulter (icy-beautiful Nicole Kidman) who promises that Lyra will join her on an adventure to the Far North, where the famed Ice Bears live. The schoolmaster is hesitant to let Lyra go, but he bids her adieu, with a secret golden compass in hand, left at the school by Lyra's beloved uncle, Lord Azriel (Daniel Craig). But she is not supposed to tell anyone about the compass, as she can use it to discover the truth about things, as long as she reads it right. The adventure ends up in Svalbard (my co-horts were excited when I told them that Svalbard is indeed, a real group of islands in the Arctic) with the Ice Bears. Children had been disappearing, and through some convoluted plot development it is apparently up to Lyra to find the kids, and to thwart the mysterious evil clutches of Mrs. Coulter. Assisting Lyra is a pretty cool character named Iorek Byrnison (voiced by Ian McKellen), who is a disgraced Ice Bear that lost his armor and became the town drunk, plus the aeronaut Lee Scoresby, played by my favorite gruff-but-friendly cowboy Sam Elliott. And in the meantime, Azriel is in his own trouble, being captured up in the Artic trying to find out the truth about... dust. Hm. Visually, The Golden Compass is pretty great looking, despite some over-used gimmicks like having to see the camera swoop into the gears of the golden compass every time it is used (which is a lot... ok, we get it). There are some wonderfully fantasical modes of transportation that I just loved, from buggies to blimps to boats. And heck, if you know me at all, you wouldn't be surprised that I was a sucker for the idea of having a critter daemon at my side. Lyra's Pan, especially in ferret-shape, was pretty darn cute and earnest. But there was so much information, and so many people, critters, tribes, and cultures to keep track of, that I was left scratching my head and asking many many questions later. The funny thing is, a day after I saw The Golden Compass, a friend of mine said he was taking his mom to a matinee. "Really? What movie?" I asked. "The Golden Circle." he said. I know I'm not the only one confused. |
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I have to admit, The Golden Compass left me a bit confused. It was in no small part due to the fact that I kept referring to it as 
, a completely different book by Doris Lessing, whom I shouldn't even mention, because she and her book had nothing to do with this movie. The His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman is a series of books that aren't as old as they sound, and are rich in symbolism and imagery, in good and evil. No wonder Hollywood jumped on the series as hopefully the next big series of kiddie blockbusters with a built in audience.
