The Golden Compass
The Golden Compass: Roaring into cinemas this Christmas
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Friday, 07, Dec 2007 02:02
Directed by Chris Weitz, out in cinemas December 5th starring Dakota Blue Richards, Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman and Eva Green, running time 113 minutes .
In a nutshell.
Pullman's fantastical world on film
What's it all about?
Based upon the first of Philip Pullman's highly popular His Dark Materials trilogy, The Golden Compass deals with the notion that hundreds of fantasy parallel worlds lie alongside our own. Nothing that controversial there, just harmless fiction. But the inclusion of the Magisterium (a sinister, oppressive organisation remarkably similar in many ways to the Catholic Church), The Authority, mysterious Dust and a group of kidnapping child-killers calling themselves the Gobblers, means that this film is far from a fluffy kids movie.
Orphan Lyra lives in the parallel world version of Oxford University, making friends with the nearby Gyptian children and young servants, with her gruff uncle Lord Asriel her only relative. But then the Gobblers kidnap her best friend, Roger, and Lyra swears to rescue him. On her travels northwards she encounters more Gyptians, witch leader Serafina Pekkala (Eva Green), the ice bears, a beautiful Mrs Coulter (Nicole Kidman) and the Gobblers themselves.
Who's in it?
Young Dakota Blue Richards is the main character as Lyra, and for a debut largely conducted talking to CGI she performs very well. Her bolshey cockney manages to convey some of the spirit of Lyra, but weighed down by a poor script some lines are sadly more than wooden.
Daniel Craig is perfectly cast as the rugged explorer Lord Asriel, although he is unfortunately rarely used. As Mrs Coulter, Nicole Kidman is unsettlingly convincing, and the supporting cast including Eva Green are superbly competent.
The voice talents of Ian McKellen (Iorek Byrnison) and Ian McShane (Ragnar Sturlusson) are a highlight, offering real majesty to the frame of the ice bears.
As an example.
Lyra Belacqua: (upon receiving the alethiometer) "What is this?"
Master of Jordan: "It's an alethiometer. It tells the truth. You are meant to have it. You keep the alethiometer to yourself, it's of the utmost importance to yourself, to all of us, and perhaps to all creation."
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars
Hopes may have been high with The Lord of the Rings being so well received in the past, but aside from possible nominations for the CGI there will be little chances of a gold statuette.
Critics will love it or hate it depending upon whether they loved or hated the books, but (despite the frankly eye-watering price-tag of £180 million) it is a guaranteed to make a stonking pile of profit and the sequel is rumoured to be already green-lit.
What the others say
"The first leg of Chris Weitz's adaptation of Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials, fails to match the magic of the book. It's not for want of trying. New Line Cinema has poured a fortune into the dazzling effects and celebrity cast. But there is no oxygen for the imagination" - The Times
"The key theme of the failings of organised religion is given only mumbling lip-service, and Pullman's flood of magical creativity is turned into a heavy mist of confusing silliness. It is as packed with incident and excitement as a trip to Marks and Spencer's sock department"- Empire
So is it any good?
The Golden Compass could've been the smash of the year - warring ice bears? Feisty heroine? A tyrannical religious regime? Daniel Craig? Souls outside of the body in animal form? What could possibly go wrong?
Lots, unfortunately.
The performances from all quarters are extremely competent, mainly down to a superb supporting cast, but it is horribly reminiscent of a roll-call of characters. Here's Lord Faa of the Gyptians - whoops, running out of time so here's Serafina Pekkala of the witches. But no time to lose, so quick, here's the ice bears. and so on. This was always going to be an enormously difficult book to transfer to screen, and with the controversy over the religious content and strongly atheist author this was never going to achieve the impossible and please everyone.
Throughout the making of this film there were constant worries over the script, with director Weitz actually quitting originally over concerns. What on earth did they discard? There is far too much telling us what is happening and not nearly enough actually showing, which, lets be honest, is not the point of movies.
Fans of Pullman's novel will be utterly confused over pointless but key changes to details of the book. Why transform Iorek Byrnison into a defeated ice bear? But more distressingly, what was the thought behind chopping off the chillingly climatic ending? This can only serve to greatly annoy fans of the original material and possibly confuse first-timers.
One of the great joys of the book was the subtle philosophical and religious undertones, intertwining enjoyable fantasy with complicated ideas such as original sin. These are hopelessly lost in the film, explained with only the briefest explanation of the battle between religion/control and heretics/scientists. The truly horrific nature of the Gobblers and the experiences of the captured children are also bypassed, leaving the audience unable to grasp the gravity of the situation and therefore care about the characters.
However, the CGI is fantastic, with the ferocious fight between the ice bears particularly seamless. Children who have not read the books will love it, engrossed in obtaining an animal daemon or the gloss and glamour of it all - but anyone who has read the books will feel disappointingly let down.
4.5/10
Melanie Green