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The Golden Compass [2007]
from Entertainment in Video
starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards, Ben Walker, Freddie Highmore
directed by Chris Weitz

Features:

• PAL

Editorial Review:

Perhaps it didn’t ignite the box office in quite the way it’d been hoped, but that’s little reason to pass over the qualities of The Golden Compass now it arrives on DVD. Based on the Phillip Pullman novel His Dark Materials--itself the start of the Northern Lights trilogy, the film isn’t without a few problems, but emerges as a quality adaptation.

And you certainly can’t fault The Golden Compass for sheer ambition. The story, for those new to the series, is primarily that of 12-year old Lyra, who is in search of her friend who has been kidnapped. Naturally, this proves to be quite a challenging adventure, not least because it’s through Pullman’s vividly imagined world, crossing dimensions as Lyra travels. The film, while toning down and fiddling with some elements of the source material, stays quite close to the book, and it proves to be a good, if not Lord Of The Rings-standard, adaptation.

What helps The Golden Compass, on top of the strong effects work and scope of the production, is a solid cast, featuring the likes of Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman and Dakota Blue Richards. And it certainly whets the appetite for the next instalment in the series. Whether the muted box office returns put pay to that remains to be seen: for now, at least, The Golden Compass is a good, solid family movie that’s easy to enjoy. --Jon Foster

Based on Philip Pullman's acclaimed His Dark Materials trilogy of books, The Golden Compass follows the epic adventure of Lyra through this dimension-crossing family movie.

THE GOLDEN COMPASS is an adaptation of the first book in the beloved but controversial fantasy series by Phillip Pullman. The story opens with Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) an orphan girl who lives in an alternate world that is similar to earth, but where people's souls exist outside of their bodies in animal form. The people are ruled by a shadowy and oppressive council known as the Magisterium, which is doing it's best to keep everyone from getting information about what is called 'Dust.' Lyra's Uncle Asriel (Daniel Craig) has been researching Dust, and he has seen to it that Lyra is given safe shelter at Jordan College. But when the visiting Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman) arrives, she asks Lyra to accompany her on a trip to the North to meet the Panserbjorne, a race of armoured bears. Before Lyra leaves, the Headmaster gives her a golden compass, a device which only she can read, and from which she can intuit the truth. Lyra leaves with Mrs. Coulter, but when she learns that her friends have been kidnapped by 'Gobblers' she heads out to find them, and soon joins forces with the nomadic Gyptians, some witches, and an armoured bear called Iorek Byrnison (voice by Ian McKellen). Lyra finds her friends, and so discovers the evil plans the Magisterium has cooked up for the world's children. By the film's end, she has vowed to track down her Uncle Asriel, and to discover the true power of Dust.
Hollywood had a tricky time of taming this tale, as Pullman's books portray religion - the Catholic Church in particular - in a less than flattering light. The film version carefully steers clear of these themes, and instead puts its enormous budget into creating visually stunning effects. While fans of the books may find fault with this streamlined version, children are sure to revel in the many talking animals and whimsical airships.

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0

• Terrible mish mash
  One of the most poorly constructed and unengaging fantasy films I've ever seen. Also a showcase for demonstrating just how many good actors and actresses you can waste in one go. There are way too many problems with this film to go into, so im just going to say it is a total waste of your time any money.

• It should have lived up to the hype the story is worth it!
  Watching this in the cinema, I was genuinely gripped until the ending, it was well paced, beautifully shot and I was motivated to buy it but I find the more I watch it the less I think it's worthy being connected to Pullman's His Dark Materials at all.
  I'll start by reviewing this single disc release, but there's not much to say! It is very sparse on extras, just a few sneak peaks, no documentaries, no commentary. The menu is well executed but there's not much else to say.
  For the film itself I'm... more info

• Books were great, film is dreadful
  The trilogy on paper was great but this film is absolutely dreadful and the actress playing Lyra comes from the "Wooden School Of Acting" populated by Harry Potter film stars.
  Major disappointment.

• Probably the worst film I have ever seen
  It's simply a collection of key scenes which do not link together. It's always going to be difficult to take a book of a few hundred pages and turn it into a two hour film, but really this is a masterclass in how not to do it.

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