The Golden Compass Review [2]

Posted by Bryan Kristopowitz on 12.10.2007

Sam Elliott and armored fighting polar bears. What more do you need to know?

Dakota Blue Richards- Lyra Belacqua
Nicole Kidman- Marisa Coulter
Daniel Craig- Lord Asriel
Ben Walker- Roger
Freddie Highmore- Pantalaimon (voice)
Ian McKellen- Iorek Byrnison
Sam Elliott- Lee Scoresby
Tom Courtenay- Farder Coram
Ian McShane- Ragnar Sturlusson (voice)
Directed by Chris Weitz
Screenplay by Chris Weitz, based on the book Northern Lights/The Colden Compass by Philip Pullman
Distributed by New Line Cinema
Rated PG-13 for scenes of fantasy violence
Runtime- 113 minutes
Website: http://www.goldencompassmovie.com

Ever since the gangbusting box office business of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and the ongoing mega success of the "Harry Potter" movie series, Hollywood has been scouring the fantasy section at the book store for "fresh" material to create "new" franchises. New Line Cinema and Bob Shaye, the fine folks behind "LOTR," have their "new" and "fresh" material in the form of "The Golden Compass," adapted from Philip Pullman's book Northern Lights, which in itself is part of a series of books titled His Dark Materials. Now, while "The Golden Compass," adapted for the screen and directed by Chris Weitz, is a fine movie, definitely worth watching, it could have been better.

And clearer.

And more exciting.

"The Golden Compass" takes place in a world, a "parallel universe," where people walk around with "daemons," physical manifestations of their souls, and are ruled by a mysterious organization called "The Magesterium," basically a group of old and wise people who want to keep information from the masses "for their own good." But there are people, "Free Thinkers," who engage in questioning authority and searching for information, much to the chagrin of the Magesterium. One of those Free Thinkers, known adventurer Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), has discovered something bizarre in the great North. There's a "dust disturbance" (see, in this series of universes everything is held together or something by dust, stuff that proves there are multiple universes, which is one of the things the Magesterium wants to keep secret). Lord Asriel wants to go to the North and talk with the Ice Bears that run things up there and to find out what exactly is going on. With the financial backing of the other Free Thinkers (some of the richest people in this world), Lord Asriel goes off on his journey to the North.

Meanwhile, the flick's main story concerns highly educated and special orphan Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) and her shape shifting daemon Pantalaimon (voice of Freddie Highmore) and their eventual journey to the North to basically do the same thing. Basically. Lyra wants to go to the North to find out what happened to the many disappeared poorer orphan children who are abducted by people/creatures called Gobblers for nefarious purposes. Or so one would assume. Why abduct children if not for nefarious reasons? But first Lyra must deal with Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman), a highly regarded woman and member of the Magesterium who wants to take Lyra under her wing for some reason (no doubt nefarious as well). And there's the business with the actual Golden Compass, which is given to Lyra by the Free Thinkers. The Compass is a sort of mystical device that allows the user to find the truth to any question or inquiry, as long as he or she is able to read and understand it. The Compass given to Lyra is the last known one in the world, the rest believed to be in the custody of the Magesterium. The Magesterium wants this one, too, and will do whatever it takes to get it back. And so that's the essential story. What exactly is up North? What does Mrs. Coulter want with Lyra? What's going on with Lord Asriel? And where the heck are the children? And will Lyra ever be able to fully understand what the Golden Compass does?

This is a dense story, filled with plenty of plot and backstory for the audience to digest so they can begin to understand what the heck is going on. Weitz and crew do an okay job of getting all of the story's main and important points out there. Again, we have to know all of this stuff so we know what's going on. But that's also the flick's main problem. By the time we sort of do know what's going on the movie is over. It's like "The Matrix Reloaded," a movie that's all set up and no pay off. Why don't we get to see more of Lord Asriel, who is defintely one of the more interesting characters we get to see? Why isn't there more with Marisa Coulter? Is she evil? Is she supposed to be ambiguous in her motivations? Where the heck did Christopher Lee's First High Councilor go? And why do we spend so much time with Lyra when her background isn't all that interesting or clear to begin with? By the end of the movie we really don't know all that much more about her than we did at the beginning. Yes, certain things are revealed, but so what? Perhaps if we knew slightly more about her relationship with Coulter and the Magesterium. Heck, perhaps if we knew slightly more about the Magesterium, got a better sense of their total control of society and the universe and whatever else the flick would be more entertaining.

At least the cast is good.

Dakota Blue Richards does a fine job as Lyra, the girl with the Golden Compass. She doesn't show much in the way of emotion (mostly because she's as clueless about herself as we are) but she holds her own with the likes of Kidman and Craig. Kidman is icy evil as Marisa Coulter. Her daemon, an orange monkey, fits her character's personality perfectly. We should have seen more of her so we could understand her character more. She's evil, yes (I suppose), but just how evil? Daniel Craig doesn't get enough time on screen, either, but then, too, this isn't supposed to be his movie (although it probably should have been). What he gets to do is good stuff. Ian McKellan, as the voice of disgraced and exiled ice bear warrior Iorek Byrnison, does his usual excellent job. And then there's Sam Elliott as Lee Scoresby, the "aeronaught" cowboy guy Lyra enlists to help her get to the North. By the time Elliott shows up the movie immediately kicks into high gear. It's freaking Sam Elliott in a fantasy movie as a cowboy! That feeling doesn't last long, though, as Scoresby is quickly relegated to standing around and talking (even in a fantasy movie Elliott does the standing sideways and talking out of the side of his mouth thing that he's known for) and not doing anything. Tom Courtney, as Gyptian leader and Lyra ally Farder Coram, has to act through heavy make up and a wicked thick accent. He kind of looks like a non-tentacled version of a character from the "Pirates of the Carribbean" movies. He gets some decent screen time and actually gets to do some stuff before the final battle.

And the final battle, while somewhat confusing because certain characters show up for the first time out of nowhere and do stuff you're not expecting, is pretty dang neat. Armored polar bears beating the crap out of one another is just fun reading and typing.

Recently, Catholic League president and right wing talk show guest yahoo Bill "Hollywood is run by secular Jews who like anal sex" Donoghue has suggested that the movie is just an advertisement for the books, and that after watching the movie children are going to ask for the books, their parents are going to get them, the children are going to read them and become "infected" with atheism and anti-God feelings, and then probably the world is going to end. I have serious doubts about that happening. Yes, I'd suspect that lots of children who haven't already the books in the "His Dark Materials" series are probably going to want to read the books after the movie, but I think Bill and his insane ilk are a little paranoid in their assessment of what's likely to happen if children are "exposed" to atheism. And while, again, lots of children are going to want to read the books, plenty more are not going to want to read the books at all. Heck, I'd bet that a whole bunch, even after watching the movie, have no idea the flick is based on a book anyway and are not going to pursue the story in any other format. So what's really going on here? How many people who find out about this "criticism" are going to say "Hey, Bill Donoghue doesn't want me reading this book! He sounds just like Count Dooku there and that guy that was in 'Underworld: Evolution"? I'd suspect lots. So, please, Bill, for your sake, stop talking about this.

So what do we have here? Space, stars, swirling gold stuff, gratuitous explanation of what a daemon is, a mob of running children, a dog and cat breathing on a hamster, gratuitous Daniel Craig, walking on the dining room table, wine poisoning, a film projector machine that runs on crystals and looks like a telescope, walking on the roof, hair brusing, gratuitous fat maid, gratuitous Nicole Kidman, gratuitous orange haired monkey petting a ferret, kidnapping children, gratuitous Christopher Lee, gratuitous Edward de Souza, gratuitous futuristic zeppelin, gratuitous makeover montage, wine drinking, a list of names in the garbage, capture by giant net, gratuitous attacks by arrows, gratuitous Tom Courtenay, gratuitous sterile white classroom, gratuitous gold mechanical bugs, gun toting eskimo attack, slamming a hammer down on the table, gratuitous Sam Elliott, spitting, a whiskey drinking disgruntled and in exile ice bear warrior drinking booze out of a bucket, ice beat street rampage, Nicole Kidman slapping her monkey, gratuitous walking through the woods, bare back ice bear riding at night, another armed eskimo attack, one-on-one armored ice bear combat, jaw punching, neck biting, walking across a giant ice bridge, an electrified fence inside a box, a giant night battle with flying people, guns, people turning into gold dust, a flying drop kick, a hook on a rope attack, and flying away in a three balloon thing.

Best lines: "If you value your lives come no further," "Don't, Billy!," "Rubbish! Hand him over!," "You know that if I get a smack I hurt, too," "That's what the smell is," "The Magesterium's days are numbered," "What do you know about dust?," "Lyra, dust is none of your business," "No one can make me a lady!," "Sometimes you must do what others think best," "You've seen an ice bear?," "Mrs. Coulter, what's that?," "The Magesterium is what people need, to tell people what to do," "Oh, I know about particles. Like dust," "Lyra, put it away now. It's absurd to be carrying around a shoulder bag in your own home," "What are you looking at?," "They're not very friendly, are they?," "Don't they teach Gyptian children how to write?," "We can work this out like gentlemen!," "That's some mighty fancy clockwork you got there," "An armored bear?," "Is that what they pay you? Whiskey?," "A bear's armor is his soul!," "Aim for the neck and head!," "The way I see it there's no need for a dust up," "You want to ride me?," "No, we're going to master our fear," "You're losing your touch, amigo," "What is this little thing?," "Prove it. Prove to me that you're a daemon," "Miss Lyra, you ready to fly?," and "I want to know what dust is."

"The Golden Compass" is a decent enough movie to sit through. It's well made, the cast is good, the effects are fun, there are fighting polar bears, and Sam Elliott shows up. Just don't expect to understand it all. And just hope that the flick makes enough money so there's a sequel and we can get some action. Or something exciting, more exciting than what we get here. But it is good, worth checking out sometime.

Go see it.

The 411: "The Golden Compass" is a fun movie, but it's not as good as it should be. It's all set up and very little pay off. It's the start to a franchise that we may not end up getting if people don't respond to the first flick. At least the cast is good. And I hope that if we do get a second movie Nicole Kidman is much more evil. Or something. She's fun but kind of benign here. And long live Sam Elliott. Sam Elliott rules.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]