Customer Reviews

The Golden Compass

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Golden Compass lifts your spirits musically. Though I found the film to be less than perfect, hardly adding anything new to Pullmans work, he has praised it's inventiveness and clarity in depicting his worlds, so this does render critics mute and despite what you may think about the film this score is beautifully put together. I am sure as soon as the dvd is out with all the scenes extended there will be more music to come, there is clearly going to be extra scenes to put back into the film because there is so much scope to add more giving clarity to what is a very richly complex film. This is probably one of the finest recordings this year!

I haven't heard of Alexandre Desplat before, but he's composed a thoughtful, often exciting, film score that seems quite removed from anything composed by John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and Howard Shore, among others. Indeed, I believe that Desplat's film score is a fine musical accompaniment to the film itself, without overshadowing either the plot or the fine performances given by a uniformly excellent cast. Acclaimed British singer Kate Bush sings a lovely, but rather banal, song over the film's end credits; here, alas, is the only comparison with Howard Shore's work that Desplat falls a bit short. Yet this is but a relatively minor complaint in what is otherwise a truly fine, quite compelling, symphonic film score.