Rating of
2.5/4
Fool's Golden Compass
Chris Kavan - wrote on 12/10/07
The Golden Compass film is directly related to Nicole Kidman's character: it looks great but it ultimately cold and soulless. The striking visuals make a great treat for your eyes, but the story feels rushed and none of the characters have any spark to give life to the film.
It's a bad sign when your most emotional character is a CGI bear with the deep, caring voice of Ian McKellen. The film always seems to be better anytime the polar bear warriors show up on screen. The bear battle scene is the highlight of the film, even more so than the ending battle between all feuding parties.
Speaking of feuding parties, those going into this film lightly are in for a surprise. Keeping everything straight is a chore: you have witches, and Gyptians and Magisteriums and bears and kids and skypilots and bandits - yet each group only gets a cursory glance so you never really get a feel for why you should care about any one of them.
Then you have Lyra, the young heroine of the story. She's played with spunk by Dakota Blue Richards. As a rebel and trouble-maker, she comes off a bit too light. There are some good moments (mostly between her and Kidman) but nothing that truly lit up the screen.
Then there is the Golden Compass itself - the movie's namesake supposedly shows the owner the truth of any question asked, but only if they know how to ask correctly. Of course our heroine is the only one who can use the device and somehow she gets it to work despite not knowing anything about the device and having very little explanation.
The animal daemons are a nice touch, but the voice actors for most of them seem pretty dull. Lyra's Pan, who gets most of the screen time, it fun to watch transform, but irritating to listen to for any amount of time.
Lastly I can't help but comment on the supposed religious aspect that some groups have been griping about. The director seemed to anticipate their wrath and removed about 98% of anything controversial. Aside from brief mentions of The Authority and the Magisterium, it could be any corrupt, generic evil group found in any other good vs. evil film.
The Golden Compass feels rushed, yet mostly devoid of any emotion. If this were summer, I would term this a standard popcorn flick, but since it's winter I guess it's more like a snowflake: beautiful but will be gone before you know it.
