“The Golden Compass,” unfortunately, is not another “Lord of the Rings,” which set the bar so high that most other fantasy movies pale in comparison. And you know the movie has problems when the most interesting character is a CGI ice bear. Now that’s not to say you won’t enjoy the movie because you will if you like fantasy. Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) lives in a parallel universe where people’s souls, called daemons, take the form of talking animals. Lyra is an orphan living at Jordan University and her only relative is the powerful Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), an adventurer out to discover what he can about Dust, the element that connects the various universes together. Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman), an icy representative of the Magisterium, an organization that seeks to limit free will, takes an interest in Lyra and the Golden Compass in Lyra’s possession. After Lyra manages to escape from Mrs. Coulter, she gathers companions to aid her in her quest to defeat the Magisterium: the armored ice bear Iorek Byrnison (voiced by Ian McKellan), an aeronaut named Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliott), the Gyptian king John Faa (Jim Carter), and the witch queen Serafina Pekkala (Eva Green). The only actor that seems out of place is Sam Elliott, who looks like he should be on the set of “3:10 to Yuma.”
The end of “The Golden Compass” makes it clear that there is more to come, which might happen if New Line Cinema gives the green light for the second book in His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman. One comment about some of the controversy around this movie: Pullman is an atheist, but none of his atheist themes make it into the movie. In fact, director Chris Weitz calls the central organization the Magisterium, not the Church and the focus is on the conflict between free will and tyranny. (12/9/07)
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