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The Golden Compass (2007)

Director: Chris Weitz

Time Out rating

Average user rating

152 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

Bland, bloodless and bereft of magic, New Line’s corporate sanitisation of Philip Pullman’s exciting, provocative fantasy novel, ‘The Northern Lights’, strips the book of its humanity and soul.

Just as the church-like Magisterium and the glacially glamorous Mrs Coulter (Nicole Kidman) are rumoured to be severing pre-pubescent children from their animal daemons (an external ‘familiar’ representing their inner soul), so this clinical dissection of Pullman’s vividly imagined parallel world cuts away the warm flesh and leaves only the bare bones.

The skeleton of the plot remains, albeit in a compacted, confusing form.

While zeppelins float above an alternate Oxford’s dreaming spires, wilful 12-year-old orphan Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) swears to rescue her kitchen-boy friend Roger from his child-cutter abductors. Lyra’s epic quest takes her to the frozen wastes of the Arctic Circle. Here, with the help of Lord Faa’s good-hearted Gyptians, ferocious ice bear Iorek Byrnison (badly voiced by a miscast Ian McKellen), cowboy aeronaut Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliott), witch queen Serafina Pekkala (Eva Green) and a precious truth-telling instrument called an alethiometer, she confronts her enemies: the corrupt king of the ice bears, Ragnar Sturlusson (Ian McShane), the cruel Mrs Coulter (Kidman typecast as an ice queen) and hordes of Tartar henchmen.

What’s missing is any sense of Lyra’s exhilarating but perplexing journey from childhood innocence to incipient adulthood. In the book, we see everything from Lyra’s point-of-view, sharing her sense of wonder, her doubts and fears, her love for her shape-shifting daemon Pantalaimon. But like the Northern Lights themselves, glimpsed only briefly as a projected image, all this is missing. As with the scary Mrs Coulter, the film should possess, 'a scent of grown-upness, something disturbing and enticing at the same time.'

Instead, it’s a synthetic, flavourless product that lacks the subversive tang of Pullman’s source novel.

Author: Nigel Floyd 2007-11-28 15:12:17

Time Out London

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User reviews of this film

joker:) said...

Posted on Jan 08 2008 17:07 CD I ALSO SAY THAT IF U SCROLL DOWN, RYAN SAID HE IS GOING 2 REPORT SIMON 4 SAYING THE WORD CRAP. WHY. WHATS THE POINT. IF U HAV A PROBLEM WITH THE WORD WORD CRAP, U NEED 2 GET OUT MORE. SO LIKE U SAID RYAN, GET A LIFE!!!!

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JOKER :) said...

Posted on Jan 08 2008 17:01 this film was xsellent, the fight scenes were good, i liked the story line and the characters were played well. people have complained about the ending, but its a trilogy 4 god sake, and the ending is the same in the book. they did that so in the next film, they can start at a part that is calm, if it finished witha fight scene, how would they start the next one? with people dying, covered in blood and crying? i dont think so. I WOULD RECOMMEND!!!!!!!

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Rachel Dwyer said...

Posted on Jan 07 2008 11:41 This film was a waste of my life, it was long and i couldn't believe that the end was a proper endin. i know its meant to be a trilogy but most trilogys have an ending with a conclusion like x-men or spiderman. Phillip Pullman is a very confused as he says that he hates Narnia but yet he has tried to re-create Narnia but has failed.
I am looking forward to Prince Caspian

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Sapphire said...

Posted on Jan 07 2008 11:33 This film was not pleasing to my eye. I found that it had a bad ending. I think maybe i will not go and see another one of this directors film as all of his i have seen are rubbish.

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Nigel Rowe said...

Posted on Jan 06 2008 15:33 I have read the book and wonder if some of those leaving comments actually have. It was superb not quite the whole book but a good place to end. It captured the book very well and for those who have read it caught all the salient issues. Better than either Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings (that was tedious) will look forward to the Subtle Knife.

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igniz said...

Posted on Jan 05 2008 10:37 Well book withstanding, this is an agreeable conversion for children and anyone who doesn't mind it not being the book.
No Magic? but Zepplins flying witches, shapechanging Daemons and talking Ice Bears? I suppose if this has no Magic then neither did CoN or LotR; I mean they only had some floaty mystic stuff talking animals and the like.
As a PG this was never going to match the book, as it stands it's a perfectly different take on the fantasy drama. More offbeat fantasy yarn than some repeated stabbing of the catholic church. Watch it, it'll be fine as long as you're not hoping for things to explode.
CoN sans matrix foolery

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Ryan said...

Posted on Jan 03 2008 19:21 Im reportin this comment as inappropriate, tut tut. U shouldnt of sed that.

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Ryan said...

Posted on Jan 03 2008 19:11 The film is great, apart from the actors and actresses, we need to play them.God get A LIFE!!!!!!!

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simon said...

Posted on Jan 03 2008 19:08 is crap never wish to view it again

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Mr G said...

Posted on Jan 03 2008 16:54 Plain & simple, just a BAD piece of film-making. The fact that it fails to retain any of the magic of the books only serves to make the whole exercise even more tragic, but, taken on it's own, it is still technically just dreadful. Avoid!

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miss gamourous said...

Posted on Jan 03 2008 15:31 O M G this has to be the most BORING film on the planet, im surprized i managed to stay awake in the TRAILERS, let alone the movie, Personly, i wouldn't go and see it, i think its a bit wierd and childish, frankly a waste of money!

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oldgoat said...

Posted on Jan 03 2008 08:55 Went to see this yesterday, and I'm glad I did! Never read the books but like Narnia and LOTR, and many others taken from books, two hours is nothing like enough screen time to get the whole plot in. A bit like 'Name of the Rose', whole sections are missed but the essence is still there.
It was nice to see a film with a battle that didn't try to replicate LOTR's 'Pellenor Fields' (again). It was also nice to see the CGI effects - daemons turning to dust etc - played down. Keeps the plot down to earth.
I thought Lyra was very well played - a 12 year-old is not going to sound as mature or confident as the adults! Derek Jakobi was wonderfully oily and Ian McKellen superb as the great Jorek.

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Alex said...

Posted on Jan 02 2008 19:33 I agree to an extent with some of the comments- the girl's acting was a bit wooden, but improved during the film. It was a little slow, but became a great film- I loved it. I don't really think it's suitable for young children- I think they'd find it boring and like others said, the bear fight shocking- I was and I'm 24!!
Got to say, I tried reading the book (I'm an avid reader) when I was younger, but jut couldn't 'get into it', whereas they film I really liked!

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beth said...

Posted on Jan 02 2008 13:51 shall i go and see it because the nintendo game is awsome!

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lu said...

Posted on Jan 01 2008 14:09 Saying a film is boring says a lot about your character. It's obvious that some people can't see the making behind the movie - judging by the trailer there are some good bits in it. What do you expect, a thriller? Murders all the way? You just have to read the book to know what it's about. Whatever you say about it I thought it was fantastic. Why don't you go home and watch the oldest film you can and compare that with the Golden Compass

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