The Golden Compass

The trailers promised me fantasy, adventure and most of all badass polar bear fights… some of it delivered but regrettably not all.

Now I am a big supporter of imaginative epics, I am not a writer with an agenda nor a christian with a beef. That being said, I just cannot refer to the movie as great, I think it had potential but fell way short of it’s mark. I compare it to a boxing match, where the champion is being challenged by an unknown newb that everyone anticipates will fall like the former challenger (Chronicles of Narnia… yawn). The challenger comes out and he is huge, and cut up like a superhero. Strutting to the ring you gain more confidence in his abilities as he approaches the ring, whilst in the corner he shadow boxes, showcasing some moves that you know will drop the champ. The bell rings and he gets floored in the 3rd round, what the hell happened? You feel like you’ve wasted money on the bout, you feel stupid for letting that big guy get your hopes up, then you get even more biased for whatever challenger will step up next. Well after that lukewarm, children’s bed story, I needed a stiff drink to write my review… I chose some Bottaro vintage, that was a gift from a good friend. Anyway. 

The Golden Compass is a tale of fantasy about the journey of little Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) a rugged little tomboy whose main mission in life was to avoid becoming a “lady” by any means. This is until her school is visited by the beautiful Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman) who takes her on a journey North, to see the Ice bears and starts her adventure into finding out who she really is… Nicole Kidman is the only reason to see this movie in my opinion, she was blazing hot, awesome in her acting out the volatile/unstable nature of Marisa and seductive in her movements whenever the camera was blessed with her presence. Did I mention she slaps the taste out of a monkey’s mouth? Ya that was a little piece of greatness for me, she was an ice-queen in many ways yet attractive in every scene. Opposite of Nicole on the acting theme, Sam Elliot delivers as usual along with Daniel Craig but Dakota seemed to struggle sometimes with her conveyance of emotion but wholly her acting was well done as the troubled little girl.

The polar bear fight was disappointing, the cinematography was AWESOME, and the score was bland. Myself being an action buff, the one saving grace for this film could have been the large scale melee at the end, but like it’s shadow “The Chronicles” this poor attempt at a “battle” left little to be desired. The story of the golden compass however is very interesting and it is a shame that the movie could not bring across this well done tale in a manner to warrant many sequels… it was just okay, nothing spectacular and heavily on the light side of storytelling. As for the religious controversy… I really wish people who beat bibles would find something better to do than to pass their Imperial Inquisition on movies, it got old way back when so this warrants zero discussion on my part. I will see this film again to grasp a bit more of the story but regrettably I wouldn’t offer this as a must-see or a gift-worthy DvD for anyone. I imagine with a cast as heavy as theirs that a sequel will come alongin the next coming years, I look forward to it and hope that they will coreograph fights alot better and possibly enhance the film a bit more.

The acting was decent which I scored 7/10 (thank Nicole for keeping this over a 6). The Cinematography was breathtaking, very good job on the airships and city-scapes 7/10… could not warrant a 8+ due to immersion, I never felt immersed in the world. Music… yawn, what a boring score and nothing memorable. I was very disappointed in the music 5/10. Story – since this comes from a book which means it was well thought out prior to film execution, I give this a 8/10 since I have never read the book yet was immediately interested and knowledgeable about the movement by the movie’s end. Direction… bleh, the movie was carried through well in terms of start, transition, end, but the fighting was just dispicable 6/10. For a final score of 6.6, not too shabby but not great either. Your kids will love it, but you may dislike it. Thanks for reading.