A Bússola de Ouro

I went in cynical about this, especially after the travesty that was the Narnia film, but i was quickly converted: it's great fun. A really entertaining and immersive film that intelligently builds a fantastical world that the uninitiated can marvel and thrill in. I have to say i haven't read the books so can't comment on a book to film comparison.

On the cast, I don't know how it works in the book but the adults are barely in this. Nicole has the most significant work and Sam Elliott, while a late arrival, is a great presence once he's around. However Daniel Craig and Eva Green are barely in it and Christopher Lee has one blink-and-you'll miss him scene. That said the casting is excellent. Green is suitably witchy and Craig makes an impact in his one/two dialogue scenes early on which, along with a couple of wordless inserts of his storyline, put him enough into your mind to wonder about him. He feels set up for a more significant role in future instalments. Elliott is great. That sonorous voice sneaking out from underneath that bushy moustache feels exactly right for Lee Scorsby.

Kidman is perfect. There's something indelibly creepy about her rigid manner that works for the elegant but sinister Mrs Coulter. Meanwhile Simon McBurney is magnificently slimy and loathsome as the magisterium main face. You know he's a villain from the moment he enters frame.

Dakota Blue Richards is a great find as Lara. While the first two Potter films and Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe were significantly hampered by the incredibly mannered, unrealistic, wooden acting of the young leads (most of the Potter cast got better, time will tell on Narnia) Richards is a winner from the outset. Precocious and feisty without seeming too forced she is generally believable whether is her rebellion or her loyalty. This is just as well as the film is really entirely on her shoulders. It will work or not for people based on whether you like her. She's in virtually every scene and has a lot of different emotions to get across as well as having to have significant interaction with CGI creations like her spirit animal Pan (the ubiquitous Freddie Highmore) and the polar bear played by Ian McKellen. She has a couple of slightly actorly moments but does incredibly well for a first timer under this kind of pressure.

Of the voice-only cast McKellen is a perfect choice for the honourable polar bear while Highmore is either getting less annoying or it's just beneficial not being able to see him, as he is nicely understated as Pan. My only note on this casting would be once or twice I couldn't tell is Lyra or Pan was speaking in their interaction as in quiet moments Highmore and Richards' voices are remarkably similar!

The effects are good but not great. I had worried they'd be as weak as Narnia and they aren't. The world is beautifully created and always feels real, whether Scorsby's flying ship or the blimp thing from the trailer, or stunning Arctic landscapes and big cities. The smaller creatures are also brilliantly rendered, Pan in particular. Some of the bigger creatures are less perfect. The polar bears have a cartoony unreal feel but in a fantasy setting with battle armour and stuff they work well enough. Certainly better than Aslan in Narnia. However the leopard creature with Daniel Craig doesn't look right at all.

As for the film itself it really zips along quickly. The uninitiated (like me) may occasionally lose track of what's going on early on as strange terms and names are thrown back and forth but it soon settles down and makes sense. Rather than frustrating me that I might be missing key elements of what this world was about I felt happy going with it and was left thinking I'll watch it again when it's released just to be sure I didn't miss anything. It's a relief to see a fantasy film that brings it in at almost exactly two hours and has a cracking momentum, as opposed to the seemingly endless drag of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Narnia. Don't get me wrong taking time can work. I really liked Fellowship of the Ring but the pace of the Potters really tests my patience. Golden Compass moves so fast before you know it it's over and it leaves you wanting more. Indeed at the end of this film I could say it had succeeded in doing something the Potter franchise has never done: it left me desperate to see the next one.

However what really made me like this film more than those others is the tone and some of the things they do in it. There are moments in this, that i won't spoil for those like me who didn't know the plot, that really surprised me that they'd do in a family film.

A big fight scene between polar bears and the end battle are suitably exciting and i found myself really invested. I cared about the characters. Whereas in Narnia they hadn't done enough to make you care about Aslan's fate (criminal given how effectively the book and the 80s BBC TV serial managed it) this really has you on the edge of your seat for the good guys.

Overall I really liked Golden Compass and would give it an 8/10 – compared to LOTR 10/10, 9/10, 7/10 for the series, Potter 5/10, 6/10, 8/10, 7/10, 7/10 for the series and Narnia 4/10. I will be watching this again when it comes out (something I never did for Potter or Narnia) and am looking forward to the next instalment. I hope Daniel Craig and Eva Green get bigger roles in the next film, but all round a great start to a potential franchise that I had middling hopes for.

Literary adaptations are always a testy business, with filmmakers consistently trying to appease fans of the original work while still making sufficient changes to make the material work as a film. With this in mind, as well as the inevitable uproar from various religious sects, The Golden Compass, adapted from the first book in Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy was hardly an easy sell, and by no means a sure bid for box office success. Despite all of the negative factors against it, the film, while not the timeless fantasy epic it would like to be, proves a decent adaptation of Pullman's work and a sufficiently entertaining piece of escapism to boot.

Despite initial skepticism, director Chris Weitz of American Pie infamy demonstrates sufficient care and interest in his subject matter to bring the novel to life in a suitably quality fashion. Despite the occasional moment of flashy cinematography or special effects giving the impression of a child experimenting with his film-making toys, Weitz demonstrates a firm and steady grip on his film, keeping the tone light for a younger audience while retaining the occasional darker moment from the book to keep fans satisfied. Weitz's screenplay, while nowhere near as disappointing as it could have been, falls prey to the typical film fantasy pitfall of consistently struggling to force-feed as much information to the audience as possible as quickly and in as simplistic a fashion as possible, leading to a somewhat rushed narrative and an irritating lack of character development or exposition. Fans of the source material will likely grumble due to the occasional creative change, some more noticeable than others, while those unfamiliar with Pullman's books may be lost in a flurry of confusion, bombarded with a constant array of new names, faces and theoretical concepts. However, despite a disappointingly simplistic tone, the sheer enjoyment factor of the novel is not lost, and such is the film's primary strength: entertainment, if at the cost of profundity.

The special effects are for the most part top notch - the shapeshifting daemon effects are impressively integrated, the armoured bear fight is without question the pure, unfiltered exhilarating spectacle of the year, and the final mass battle sequence is similarly thrilling. The film's sets, costumes and props are spellbinding, easily giving the viewer the sense of being immersed in an imaginative alternate world with all of the visual splendour befitting such a fantasy epic. However, the film's musical score is a painful rehash of far too many clichéd epic film scores of late - far too overdone to be in the least emotionally affecting.

The stellar cast prove to be the film's high point, each inhabiting their roles with a comfort suggesting they had been born to play their respective parts. Newcomer Dakota Blue Richards is a revelation, surpassing the wooden efforts of most other child actors and carrying her lead role with ease, holding her own alongside her incredibly accomplished adult co-stars. Nicole Kidman is sheer perfection as the malevolent yet hypnotic Mrs. Coulter, effortlessly walking away with the show - every moment on screen, every glance, every movement is entirely in character, so fully does Kidman make the role her own. Daniel Craig proves a very fitting choice as scientific explorer Lord Asriel, making good use of his far too fleeting screen time, though one can't help but wish his character had a slight bit more of an edge to him.

Sam Elliot gives his strongest performance in years, instilling sardonic aeronaut Lee Scoresby with an offbeat charisma and sly humour wonderfully fitting the role and Eva Green is an ethereal and captivating presence as mysterious witch Serafina Pekkala. The somberous tones of Ian McKellan prove ideal in breathing life and soul into armoured bear Iorek Byrnison, and young Freddie Highmore is well cast as the voice of Lyra's daemon, Pantalaimon. Derek Jacobi and Simon McBurney give strong, if one dimensional performances as heads of the ominous Magesterium organization, as does Christopher Lee, whose 'blink-and-you-miss- him' role appears to be nothing less than a blatant cash in on The Lord of the Rings, but who delivers his one line well at any rate.

While fans of the novels may lament the watering down of the philosophical undertones of Pullman's novel, and the film being directed towards a younger audience, on the whole, despite the inescapable criticisms, as a sprawling piece of fantasy escapism, immersing the viewer in a world of armoured bears, daemons and witches, the film is a rousing success. It's just a shame to see such a strong premise fraught with such an overbearing air of caution and safety to please the lower common denominator, and one can't help but wish the producers had been slightly more daring, and captured a trace more of Pullman's nervy grit and spark to make the film a slightly less generic Hollywood blockbuster, and more satisfying overall. The film certainly isn't the 'next Lord of the Rings' which New Line certainly seems to intend for it to become, but an enjoyable and sufficiently impressive effort to warrant the next installment in the series, The Subtle Knife being made.

-7.5/10

An evil empire called the Magestirium attempts total control of the population by hiding the secrets or parallel universes and a unifying particle called Dust in Chris Weitz's clunky but entertaining adaptation of Philip Pullman's "The Golden Compass".

"Harry Potter" and "The Lord of the Rings" have never apologized about their overt paganism. Likewise, "The Chronicles of Narnia" have never been accused of being subtle as a Christian allegory. These series, in both literary and film forms, have been monster hits due to their unapologetic natures that speak truths to their ardent fan bases. British writer Philip Pullman's darkly subversive anti-religious fantasy books have also been hugely successful, more so overseas than here in the States. Stripped of the books' overt atheistic messages, "The Golden Compass" takes a reverse psychology approach in its film treatment and oddly positions itself as an apology for Pullman's work. The result is a tepid affair that joins a long line of fantasy films about children discovering they are the chosen ones destined to save the world. At least this film is refreshing in its stance on girl-power as represented in the main character Lyra, played wonderfully by newcomer Dakota Blue Richards, who apparently is a graduate of the Dakota Fanning school of acting. Whether or not this tactic to strip the film of its soul (much like the Magesiterium strips children of their daemons) will make the film broadly appealing enough to warrant a franchise has yet to be determined.

The film comes across as more anti-authoritarianism in general than specifically anti-religion. In the 21st century the line between authoritarian politics and organized religion has become increasingly blurred. Since we currently live in a world where a born-again Christian sits in the White House and wages wars in Muslim nations, it's easy to see why folks from both sides of the aisle, ardent fans of the books and conservative Christians alike, have been worked up into a mindless and silly frenzy over even just a watered-down film version of the first of Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, with one side saying it's not wickedly subversive enough, and the other side saying it's still subversively wicked.

However, viewing the film out of the context of the books upon which it is based and the ridiculous faux-controversy surrounding them, it makes the grade as a big-budget fantasy flick. Yes, there are too many characters to keep track of, and the film has rushed feel to it as if it was edited at the last minute, but it still makes for an interesting trip. Kids will be wowed by the elaborate set designs and CGI effects, which are far superior to the ones in the similarly clunky but still entertaining "Chronicles of Narnia" and culminate in an awesome battle sequence involving armored polar bears--take that Global Warming! Adults will get a kick out the nimble ensemble cast, who all seem to be having a great deal of fun with the self-seriousness of the whole production and are headlined by Nicole Kidman--botoxed, full-lipped and deliciously frosty in a creepy villain role that suits her perfectly.

Possibly the strangest aspect of the film comes as an accidental subtext resulting from its apologetic nature. With its depiction of mystical-minded do-gooders rallying against the totalitarian Magestirium, "The Golden Compass" almost comes across as a period piece anti-Communist allegory rallying for the fall of the Soviet Union. It makes the film feel charmingly dated. There's also the disturbing subtext of child abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church as seen in the Magestirium's cruel experiments with kidnapped children, which makes the film feel charmingly grotesque.

Bottom Line: Any movie that depicts Nicole Kidman walking around with a monkey and preaches the importance of free will, making bonds, sticking together, and fighting for your friends and loved ones can't be all that bad. Despite some of the themes of the books being exorcised and arbitrarily presented by a poorly chosen Chris Weitz (a director known for his comedies "American Pie" and "About a Boy"), "The Golden Compass" still has enough interesting elements and old-fashioned razzle dazzle presented with new age CGI to make it entertaining. At its worst, it presents two hours of dark fantasy-land eye candy. At its best, it encourages adults and children alike to use their free will to do something far better with their two hours, like read.

For some strange reason, a theater in the middle of the cornfield in Indiana had a sneak preview of the Golden Compass, and being a fan of the books I decided to take advantage of it. I wasn't sure what I was getting into, as there seems to be a rather large glut of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings wannabes crowding theaters now and in the near future. This version of the Golden Compass beautifully brings the books to life and was very pleasing to watch with rather nice visuals. The acting is quite good, especially from the young lead, and the animation makes one wonder what they can't do with computers these days. The only true complaint I have about this movie is that it is difficult to understand and follow if one is not familiar with the books. Some scenes at the beginning seems disconnected, but after the halfway point the story comes together. The Golden Compass series is rather dark in its nature, and I'm glad that the movie didn't pull any punches with the supernatural combat (which is awesome, specifically when the witches and bears do battle). Some liberty is taken with the story as expected, and many church references are renamed, but the quality of the story never suffers. I recommend the movie and I look forward to seeing the rest of the trilogy completed.

The golden compass is a pretty comparable children's movie. The acting is well done, both from the kids and adults. The cast ensemble is made up of some fairly prominent names. I quite enjoyed watching, though I'm still not sure I get what dust is, or why the college let Nicole Kidman take the girl "as an assistant". It was all fairly good, watching ioryek slap the jaw off a polar bear was a highlight. But my main grievance is that they set up for a sequel that never happened, leaving the ending lacking.