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123 of 134 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Fantasy with a Strong Cast of Humans and Animated Animals!, May 3, 2008
Not being one who seeks out the seemingly endless line of Harry Potter/Narnia/Lord of the Rings tropes (a little computer generated monster realm goes a long way), THE GOLDEN COMPASS came somewhat as a pleasant surprise. Yes, this is still a fantasy film, but the emphasis is more on stylish creation of various animals (in the forms of 'daemons' that accompany children as their souls, morphing into various animal life at will) than tiresome explosions and flying beasties.
Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) is clearly the star of this adventure that explores the possibility of other, parallel worlds whose interaction with the world as we know it is controlled by various groups of good guys and bad guys, all seeking the source of secrecy contained in a Golden Compass that can only be read by a single girl - Lyra, a poor child living in the presence of scholars. Lyra's uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) places the Golden Compass in Lyra's knowing hands and heads off to the far North to investigate the element that binds all life together - Dust. The tale is set in motion by the enigmatic Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman) who gains Lyra's confidence and offers to take her to the great North. All manner of adventures occur on the journey - friends of Lyra's are threatened to be separated from their various daemons in the cruel hands of the bad guys, Lyra's encounter with a witch Serafina Pekkala (Eva Green), her assistance from a friendly astronaut (Sam Elliott) and an armored bear - and with all fantasies, good prevails - or does it? Tune in for the very obvious next installment.
The pleasures are many, not the least of which are the voices and changing forms of the little animal daemons. The cast is excellent and the whole movie sails with yet another beautiful musical score by Alexandre Desplat. It is a nice diversion, but you have to love fantasy. Grady Harp, May 08
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51 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Why a Wonderful Movie failed at the Box Office., October 14, 2008
Disclaimer--Having seen this movie eleven times in theatres and three times since I bought the DVD, I must confess up front that this is by far my all-time favorite movie out of the many hundreds I have seen over the years. [I'm 68 at this writing.] So the fact that I love it so much will undoubtedly influence this review, and, if you're looking for objectivity above all, this review is probably not a good place to start.
That said, I'm nevertheless going to try to be as relatively-objective as is possible given that background, and in order to do so I'm going to have to write a very long review. I apologize in advance, but urge you to bear with me, because if you care at all about the state of the cinema or about the rights of children, or both, I have some things to say to you.
First, a quick plot summary, for those who have read neither the books nor the other reviews on this site.
Lyra Belacqua, a young girl on the verge of adolecscence, in a somewhat altered London set in an alternate and fairly parallel universe, becomes the central figure in a convoluted story of adults who manipulate and/or try to control children, and of the children who are their victims. Two of her best friends are kidnapped by the 'child-cutters,' as some opponents describe them, and it becomes Lyra's mission to rescue them. In this quest she is aided by, first, a group of Gyptians [sea-faring gypsies], second, an Aeronaut from Texas [who flies a hydrogen-filled blimp of sorts], and, third, an Armored Bear [imagine an over-large ferocious but friendly Polar Bear in medieval Knight's Armor, and you're a third of the way there].
One peculiarity of this parallel universe is that every human being in it has associated with him or her an animal spirit, a daemon [mis-pronounced as 'demon' in the movie], who is an integral part of her or his personality and individuality. If either the daemon or the human dies, the other immediately dies as well. But, as it turns out, they CAN be permanently separated from each other, by a horrible device called an Intercision Machine. [Hence the term 'child-cutters.'] This makes both aspects of the personality involved much easier to control, and, of course, inevitably, the adults who do the dirty work explain that they are doing it 'for your own good.' Yep. We've heard that before.
Lyra has been rather indifferently 'raised' by a group of scholars at Oxford's 'Jordan College,' and has in fact been pretty much a street orphan of sorts who has learned to survive by wile, by subterfuge, and by outright lying. This background equips her perfectly for her role as saviour of her fellow kids, as she battles not only the child-cutters but other people who seem superficially to be on her side. She literally never knows quite who to trust, and in one case trusts someone whom she never should have [though we won't find that out till they make the sequel, if they ever do, as the original ending of the movie which reveals this fact was cut just before release].
Needless to say, this being a kid's movie after all, Lyra in a sense achieves a part of her goal, although in doing so she sets things up for even more horrific confrontations to come. The story is far from over at the end of the movie, although the absolute gut-wrenching cliffhanger at the end of the book is avoided.
So much for plot.
In judging this production, I do have a few negative things to say, so will get them out of the way first:
1. The book is much, much better. The movie's story line is vastly oversimplified and a lot of delicious detail is left out, plus which the sequence of events is altered in a major way, which may offend you greatly if you're any kind of purist.
2. The movie did not have the guts to call The Magisterium by its name in the books: The Church. On the other hand, since in the symbology used by author Pullman in the books, The Church in Lyra's parallel universe is NOT the same as The Church in ours, it's probably just as well that the movie made this alteration. [The religious right fanatics who protested this movie had obviously never read the books, or they would have realized they were protesting entirely the wrong thing: The Church being condemned in the books is what we call Science in our universe!]
3. Several clues in the first book which hinted at the real nature of what daemons are [they are NOT souls, for pity sake] are omitted from the movie, so that the true nature of the animal spirits remains a total mystery to most viewers, and even for that matter to some readers of the books, evidently, judging by all the misinformation floating around out there. In this connection, I should point out that just as our heroine, Lyra, tells lies in order to convey deeper truths, so do some other characters, and so does the author of the book. He knows good and well that daemons are not souls, but he pretends at times to say that they are to keep from getting thrown out of society in general. Likewise, I'm sure that the director knows the truth as well, but also doesn't want to flush his career down the toilet by admitting it.
Now for the positives, and there are a ton:
1. As several other reviewers have pointed out, the computer generated characters and other special effects are state of the art. Iorek alone, the Armored Bear, is worth several times the price of admission. He is just as 'real' as any of the human characters in the movie. The Oscar was well deserved.
2. The acting is superb throughout, particularly the fantastic Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra. [It's an absolute crime against humanity that by the time they get around to making the sequels, she will be too old to play the role.]
3. The musical score by Alexandre Desplat is wonderful and helps carry the movie, often alerting the viewer subtly to the true nature of the characters.
4. The much-maligned quick-cut editing is actually one of the movie's strong points, especially when you see it more than once.
5. Chris Weitz' script and direction are spot-on.
6. The art design, set decoration, and costumes are all worthy of the comparisons being made to Lord of the Rings.
7. The simplification of the plot, compared to the book, and the omission of a lot of narrative detail, was necessary to keep the movie from being more than three hours long. True, I would have loved the three hour version even more than this one, but the movie is aimed primarily at kids, after all, and what modern kid will sit still through even a three-minute movie, let alone a three hour one.
8. This movie is 'good for you,' and good for your kids. Your ten, eleven, and twelve year olds should watch it over and over. The ones who have not been seduced by video game culture will appreciate it, and even those who have may find themselves being redeemed. The general run of Hollywood cinema for kids is worse than pablum. This one has real mental nutrition in it, and the kids who see it will 'get it,' even when the adults don't.
Which concludes my review of the movie and of the DVD. But I have a few more words to say, partly because this story in both book and movie form is so controversial and also because the underlying theme--the rights of children--is so critical to the health of our society. Or to put it another way, the underlying theme of the rights of children explains WHY the story is so controversial, and that requires some comment.
The bad guys in this movie--by which I mean both the overtly bad ones and the ones who seem superficially to be 'good guys' but aren't--are the epitome of what's wrong with the way we treat children in our society. [By 'our' society, I am referring to the U.S. mostly.] And that is why the movie was a box-office failure in the U.S. and was a wild success in the rest of the world. It had nothing to do with the advertising or the way it was promoted. It has everything to do with the way most parents and other adult authority figures in our culture relate to kids:
As the comic strip character Pogo once said, "We have met the enemy, and he is us." WE are the child-cutters. WE are the ones who deny children the right to explore their own feelings, especially their own feelings relating to their growing sense of sexuality. WE are the ones who tolerate child-rearing based on 'authority' rather than on nurturance. WE are the ones who say, "Because I said so," when asked 'Why' by the little ones. The bad guys in this story are US. Of COURSE such a movie, with such a message, is going to fail at the box office. People are not entirely stupid. They are not going to pay to expose their kids to propaganda aimed at getting them to rebel against The Magisterium. Because the Magisterium is not The Church. It's you and me. Except I've resigned from it. And if you have any sense, you will too. And you'll be on the side henceforth of those who believe that children very often know what's best for themselves, and believe it, and do it, provided the rest of us just please stop getting in the way, with our Intercision Machines cutting away the kids' spirits from them.
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141 of 184 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Fight for Free Will, December 7, 2007
The special effects and the cinematography of "The Golden Compass" are wonderful, but it's the subtext that really shines through, making for one of the most unique, fascinating, and entertaining fantasy films of recent memory. Just as it is in the film, the plot of Philip Pullman's original novel suggested that free will was kept under strict control. The film brings this idea to the surface and allows the audience to analyze it; in a parallel universe--in which a person's soul is separate and physically represented by an animal--a ruthless organization called the Magisterium tries to enforce rules against free will. Anyone who challenges its authority will be condemned as a heretic. Because they wanted to ensure total compliance, the Magisterium sought to destroy every last alethiometer, or golden compass--a magical, watch-like mechanism that literally tells the truth by pointing at strange symbols.
The one alethiometer that survived is now in the possession of Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), a college professor who defies the Magisterium by confirming the existence of dust. I'm not referring to the allergy-inducing particles that settle on ordinary surfaces; I'm referring to the magical substance that's somehow related to a rift between their universe and ours. Because this has put him at odds with the Magisterium, he gives the alethiometer to his orphaned niece, Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards), a young girl raised by the professors at a university. Lyra, who absolutely hates being called a lady, is clever, bold, and incredibly headstrong, with an adventurous spirit that occasionally gets her into trouble. Her spirit--or daemon, as referred to by the characters--is Pan (voiced by Freddie Highmore), who hasn't quite decided which animal form to take. He spends most of his time as a ferret, but he also turns into a cat, a bird, and a mouse.
When Lyra hears that her uncle is traveling to the snowy north to find the dust and open this cross-dimensional rift, she wishes to join him. Asriel refuses to let her, and he warns her against speaking of dust to anyone. Here enters Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman), the wicked, controlling head of the Magisterium; she quickly learns that the alethiometer is in Lyra's possession and vows to reclaim it by tricking Lyra onto her good side. Mrs. Coulter's true nature is soon revealed, and upon escaping, Lyra is put under the protection of the Gyptians, a band of rebels who were once aided by Lord Asriel. As they journey north with Lyra, she also meets: Serafina (Eva Green), an elegant, almost ethereal witch; Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliott), a grizzled pilot who speaks like a Texan from the Old West; and Iorek Byrnison (voiced by Ian McKellen), a disgraced polar bear who was once a great warrior among an entire clan of polar bears. To rid himself of his shame, he decides to reclaim his stolen armor and protect Lyra at whatever cost.
This is pretty much the foundation for the adventure that follows, an adventure so big that it isn't over even when the movie ends. But in the grand scheme of things, the adventure is fairly superficial and only part of what makes it so wonderful; "The Golden Compass" is just as thought provoking as it is enjoyable, filled to the brim with intelligent, meaningful undertones. This isn't to say that the film exists entirely as one big commentary--a good portion of it functions at a level of pure entertainment, from the convincing special effects to the stunning set designs to the fantastic mechanical creations. The story is not one of the future, the past, or even the present; its unique setting has essentially made any sense of time meaningless. And let's not forget a number of lighthearted moments between Lyra and her best friend, Roger (Ben Walker), both of whom are more like bonded siblings.
But there is a dark side to this story. For one thing, the Magisterium is involved in a sinister plot to kidnap children and sever the connections between them and their daemons. The sooner they lose their spirits (pun definitely intended), the quicker they can be controlled. There's also a general sense of foreboding that runs through the entire film, as if to say that certain things are not as simple as they may first appear. Consider the fact that a person's physical pain is also felt by his or her daemon, and vice versa: What exactly will happen if one of them dies? Can one exist without the other? And how exactly are daemons a threat to free will?
The fact that I'm asking these questions is a good thing, because it proves that "The Golden Compass" is a stimulating film. Rarely is a fantasy story allowed to transcend the limiting clichés of princesses, castles, dragons, swords, and predictable Hero's Journeys. Here's a film that actually brings something new to the genre, something fresh, exciting, daring, and determined. This is not a mind-numbing rehash; it's a thoroughly original experience, highlighted by delightful performances, a solid structure, and a well-rounded social commentary. I suppose I should make a note about the Catholic Church's poor reception of this film, but why bother? Religion--or lack thereof--has nothing to do with it. It has everything to do with being engaging, smart, and imaginative.
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