Hollywood's latest fantasy epic has just been released with high hopes of replicating the success of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Chronicles of Narnia. Trusted with completing this mammoth task (and given a $205 million budget to do so) was first-time director Chris Weitz.
Based on the novel Northern Lights, book one of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The Golden Compass stars newcomer Dakota Blue Richards, Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. Rounding out the cast is Sam Elliot as Lee Scoresby and Sir Ian McKellen, providing the voice of polar bear lorek Byrnison.
In a parallel world to our own, there is a society that exists which features witches, gypsy pirates, sentient polar bears and daemons. Daemons are manifestations of a person's soul that takes animal form and serve as companions. In this world lives Lyra Belacqua (Richards), an ordinary girl with an extraordinary destiny.
A mysterious organization known as the "Gobblers," headed by Marissa Coulter (Kidman), is kidnapping children and running experiments to try to and separate them from their daemons. After her best friend is kidnapped, Lyra is determined to rescue him and evade the clutches of Coulter and the church-like Magisterium.
With its somewhat disjointed narrative and formulaic cinematography, the only memorable quality to the film is its action sequences. Alas, basic cut-editing and CGI do not make a great film-a fact made more than apparent in this movie.
It isn't advisable to see this film without at least a cursory knowledge of the premise of the fantasy world-the film itself doesn't do a good job explaining Pullman's universe to the audience.
With the combination of hype and disappointment, this movie reminds me of The Matrix sequels. No, they weren't terrible, but they lacked a certain lyricism to the story that makes good movies great.
-Braden Hendricks
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.