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Bookmark this pageThe Golden Compass (2007)
Director: Chris Weitz
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
Time Out London
User reviews of this film
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- Sutton said...
- Posted on Dec 25 2007 20:48 Despite some top notch actors (excluding the child actors - who were poor), this was a dull movie. Perhaps just for children.
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- cez said...
- Posted on Dec 25 2007 15:49 crap crap crap ...................
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- John Smith said...
- Posted on Dec 24 2007 20:23 very good
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- marrow said...
- Posted on Dec 23 2007 17:21 Haven't tread the book and wenb t with low expectations but was disappointed when it finished as was engrossed in the Pullman world.
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- lil' me said...
- Posted on Dec 22 2007 09:56 terrible! wud certainly not recommend it as it is a complete and utter mess of a film the director must of been drunk at the time of filming or something. The makers of this film should be ashamed of themselves. That was 2 hours wasted that I'll never get back!
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- chris needham said...
- Posted on Dec 21 2007 23:18 the worst film I have ever seen in all my life. no story, too many strands, poor drama, i would rather lay on a bed and be beaten with a stick than watch this again..
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- HOTTii3...x said...
- Posted on Dec 21 2007 19:11 THiiS W4S RUBBiiSH I D0NT R3COMM3ND iiT...x
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- . said...
- Posted on Dec 21 2007 19:08 hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii my mates say this film is realy rubbish
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- al said...
- Posted on Dec 21 2007 13:58 a real shame it's not as good as the book
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- Sarah.Sophie said...
- Posted on Dec 21 2007 09:17 This film was great! We loved the way it was a bit spooky how the little gilr was the only one who could read the golden compass. It was werid but awsome! We would definatly watch this again. RECOMMENDED!
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- DissApointed said...
- Posted on Dec 20 2007 22:54 i found the film boring, it was a waste of money and i WOULDNT recommend it.!! >> UTTER CRAP!
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- Me said...
- Posted on Dec 20 2007 17:07 Meh
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- Jess said...
- Posted on Dec 19 2007 19:04 The Golden Compass Was Horrifcally Terrible. It Was A Waste Of Money Thats All I Can Say
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- Monty said...
- Posted on Dec 19 2007 11:46 This film was quite good - a little overhyped
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- jenny cotgrove said...
- Posted on Dec 18 2007 23:19 true to book excellent film.Well worth going to see.
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Now showing
This film is showing at these cinemas near Leicester Square, Greater London
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Cast & crew
Director: Chris Weitz
Cast: Dakota Blue Richards, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Sam Elliott, John Hurt, Ben Walker, Jim Carter, Tom Courtenay, Christopher Lee, Kristin Scott Thomas, Edward de Souza, Derek Jacobi, Ian McShane, Freddie Highmore, Ian McKellen, Kathy Bates full cast
Genre(s): Action/Adventure, Fantasy
Duration: 114 mins
UK Release: Dec 5 2007
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