The Golden Compass Movie Review
December 9th, 2007Based off the children’s book Northern Lights, the Golden Compass was a film about an orphan girl named Lyra and her fantastic adventures. The Catholic League called this film offensive and called for a boycott. Although the book is supposedly anti-religion (I never read it), the movie itself isn’t that offensive, as the “bad guys” are a monolithic power hungry government body called the Magisterium.
In this parallel universe, humans stand side by side with their souls, which take animal form. Children’s souls, called daemons in the film, change shape for children still haven’t figured out who they really are yet. With adults however, their daemons remain one animal. A death to either is a death to both, and causing pain to one affects both.
Lyra is given a golden compass, which always tells the truth. The Magisterium was supposed to confiscate them all, but apparently she got a hold of one and only a select few people in the world, including her, can actually read the thing.
The Magisterium wants to dominate all thought, and suppress people’s concepts of magical “dust,” which I guess we’ll learn in the second film the relevance of. The movie ended prematurely without solving much. Usually with an obvious sequel, you at least have some resolution, but this one left it wide open. And yes, it’s a bad thing and dead zombies will be docked.
The other criticism I have of it is the flow. It flowed okay, but in some parts was rather choppy. There were too many main characters and only a few of them got developed, but of course, even those were one dimensional.
The special effects were quite good, but effects don’t impress me. Only dialog and good storytelling do. Both were mediocre at best.
I really wanted to like this film, for it’s a fantasy, but as usually happens in a fantasy film, too much is spent on awing the audience with neat-o special effects. That doesn’t fly to a pretentious critic. You must also have dialog, a storyline, and character development. Lyra, the evil Marisa Coulter, and everyone else were one dimensional and predictable. A few years from now, I’ll completely forget seeing this movie, as I have almost forgotten about the fantasy movie Eragon.
4 dead zombies 
That’s too bad! The commercials for this movie looked good.
I still want to read the books though.
We were suppose to see it this weekend but several interruptions prevented us from ever going. I must admit I’m finding the objections by religious groups a little disingenuous since I heard next to nothing from the atheists when the Lord of the Rings movies and Naria came out with their pro-religious message. I’m no big fan of Hittchens and Dawkins, and frankly find them more blow hards than anything, but if a movie can turn you atheist you don’t have much faith to begin with. Great review and I won’t be going to that movie.
Tshsmom - If you read the books, please review them for us.
Beach - People get offended too d*mn easily. I said it before and I’ll say it again. It is impossible to offend God. God creates the universe, and the Earth is just a pebble in the Solar System, and we are from space not even dots on Earth. Therefore, the whole concept of offending God is silly.
I read the first of the books, and it was pretty good, though I think I’m over my fascination with fantasy for the sake of being fantasy. The pious are apparently upset about the ending of the series (which I have not read) where God is killed. And in an interview, Pullman declares himself an atheist and that the series is about killing God.
Christians should be tolerant of this and show the Muslims how it is done.
Agreed. The Catholic League are just shooting themselves in the foot by calling for a boycott.
Religion aside, I really wanted to like this movie. Its execution is what fell short. It just didn’t have the magic that the first four Harry Potter movies or the Lord of the Rings movies had.
I didn’t think it was that bad.
It wasn’t as good as the Harry Potter movies, but I’d give it a lot higher than 4 out of 10.
I read all three books a number of years ago. I’m Catholic and I missed the part where I was supposed to be offended by the books. Also, everything I’ve read from Catholic sources absolutely did NOT say to boycott the movies. They gave the background, reviewed the movie and said to judge for yourself. I viewed the Magesterium as a corrupt version of religion, which is how it’s portrayed. Pullman may be an atheist, but who cares. We are all entitled to our views on this subject.
I agree with Beach Bum - how strong is your faith if a movie or a book can make you rethink it that easily.
Kate - I really tried to like it. I just couldn’t. Harry Potter III set the bar high for fantasy films.
Kathleen - I’ve been told by people in my religious circle that I shouldn’t be listening to bands like Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir. I just shrug them off. They’re wasting my time. If I like something, I could care less how offensive something is. Same goes for film, books, comedy, art, etc.