The Golden Compass

Solid

I had known of author Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy for some time; may have even leafed through some of the pages while browsing at Barnes & Noble. Of course it wasn't until New Line decided to adapt it for the big screen that I decided to familiarize myself with it more by listening to the audio book version of the first novel
before seeing the movie. As with most if not all literary works I've either read or listened to, I thought the book was much better.

While director Chris Wietz remains true to the basic story, wisely excluding some religious metaphors referring to God and the Church, he seemingly rushes you through to the ending without giving the characters, despite a stellar cast, time to fully develop. This film should have been, at least 45 minutes to an hour longer (it's running time is less
than 2 hours). But, unlike a certain other trilogy with a Hobbit at center stage, The Golden Compass was to appeal to kids as well as adults. Attention spans you know.

For those who have read (or listened) to this first book you know that Pullman sets the story in an alternate world, giving him license to "alter" anything he likes- including biblical scripture. This includes a totally different origin of God Himself , a slight twist on the story of Adam and Eve in the garden and a person's soul living on the outside of
their body (called a daemon and pronounced demon) that, being a Christian myself, I found a bit unnerving. But nonetheless interesting enough to hear out.

Our prime character is Lyra Belaqua (played by newcomer Dakota Blue Richards), a plucky young student at the plush Jordan School in Oxford. Her privileged life in a London of majestic beauty and high flying zeppelins for air transportation certainly does not preclude her curiosity. As with all residents of this other-world, she is constantly
flanked by her shape shifting daemon Pan who urges her to exercise caution when her misadventures get a bit risky.

Her real adventures begin after a conversation about a substance called "Dust" that she has with her dispassionate uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), a prominent scholar and scientist at Oxford College. Much to the chagrin of the prevailing authority, The Magisterium, Asriel delves too much into the theory of multiple universes of which dust is a primary factor. He admonishes Lyra never to talk about it.

Bringing The Golden Compass to the big screen was apparently not simple due to the ongoing controversy on it's subject matter, despite it's exclusion. Nonetheless Weitz has managed to create a beautifully dramatic, adventure film laced with flying witches, talking animals and rampaging polar bears courtesy of special fx house Weta Digital.

Casting was nearly perfect with the exception of Sir Ian McCellan as a questionable choice for the voice of Iorek Byrinson. After listening to the audio book, I found them exceptionally consistent. Daniel Craig's James Bond is indeed less cold hearted than his Lord Asriel, Nicole Kidman simply shines as the evil Marisa Coulter, Sam Elliot was just right for rough riding soldier Lee Scorseby and it seems that another "Dakota" will make her mark playing other roles besides than Lyra.

As of this writing, The Golden Compass has been more of a box office smash internationally than domestically. Controversy usually sells a film(i.e.- The Passion of The Christ). In this case, the American religious sect gave it such a wallop, protesting and boycotting theaters, that many people decided not to see it.

Could it be with taboos being violated in this country every day that there are still some we consider sacred? Especially one from a book trilogy concluding with the killing of god. And that's about as taboo as you can get.