The Golden Compass - A Strange and Wonderful Movie
My Review of ‘The Golden Compass’
I went to the movies over the weekend and saw a film I’ve wanted to see for awhile now; ‘The Golden Compass‘.
As I have already read and enjoyed Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials Trilogy’, which includes ‘The Golden Compass’, ‘The Subtle Knife’ and ‘The Amber Spyglass’, I was quite interested to see the movie version. Actually, I read the British edition of the trilogy; the first book is called ‘Northern Lights’.
The synopsis from New Line Cinema:
Based on author Philip Pullman’s best-selling and award-winning novel, The Golden Compass tells the first story in Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. The Golden Compass is an exciting fantasy adventure, set in an alternative world where people’s souls manifest themselves as animals, talking bears fight wars, and Gyptians and witches co-exist.
At the center of the story is Lyra (played by newcomer Dakota Blue Richards), a 12-year-old girl who starts out trying to rescue a friend who’s been kidnapped by a mysterious organization known as the Gobblers - and winds up on an epic quest to save not only her world, but ours as well.
The Golden Compass stars an ensemble cast that includes Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott, and Ian McShane. The film is written and directed by Chris Weitz (About a Boy, Antz).
My thoughts about the film:
Overall, I enjoyed watching ‘The Golden Compass’ and appreciated it as a movie by itself. Indeed it is an exciting fantasy adventure. Being a movie, its naturally different and a condensed version of the book; that’s to be expected in any book to movie translation.
The acting was good and there were all sorts of favorites both on screen and as the voices of the animated characters. Ian McKellen for instance plays the armoured bear, Iorek Byrnison. The special effects and the translation of this alternative universe were very well done I thought.
After watching the movie I did have a couple of questions / concerns though. Firstly, one hopes that there will be a sequel or rather sequels. As it stands, although the movie is decent enough it leaves one hanging unless there are sequels. Secondly, an important event that happens at the end of the book wasn’t included in the movie. In fact it is an important motivating factor that pushes Lyra to go forward in her adventures.
Since the release of this movie into the theatres, the religious nutters have started crying out against it. Much of what I’ve read about the criticism directed to the movie is a load of rubbish. Why should they be the only ones who decide what sort of stories and / or realities exist? Moreover, it sounds like a lot of them haven’t even seen the movie, let alone read the books. I’m hearing critical things about events that aren’t even in the movie, let alone the first book. So their judgment is pretty uninformed.
There are all sorts of strange, wonderful and interesting concepts that are brought to life in ‘The Golden Compass‘; it provides an entertaining evening, and I’m looking forward to seeing the other two books brought to life on film.
