I saw The Golden Compass movie last night. Overall, it was excellent.
For those of you who have read Phillip Pullman' s Dark Materials trilogy, or just the first book, the screenwriters followed the book pretty closely, and it seemed to me that they left out very little. It has been years since I read the books, however...at least ten, to be more exact, but from what I remember they did Pullman' s text justice.
For those of you who have not read the book(s), the premise of the story is this.
It revolves around a young girl named Lyra Belaqua (Dakota Blue Richards), who lives at Jordan College in England, in a parallel world not too much different from our own, but where people have daemons; animal counterparts that are never far from them, act as a conscience and reflect the person' s true feelings and character. Lyra does not want to become a ' lady' , frequently causes mischief and prefers the company of the scraggly Gyptian children and that of her best friend Roger; a servant child.
Lyra' s Uncle Asriel (Daniel Craig) comes to the college and Lyra, hiding in a wardrobe, overhears something about ' Dust' , which Asriel has been studying. He has come to ask the college for funding for an expedition into the North for more experiments. Lyra wants to go, but Asriel tells her she is to stay at Jordan and stay out of mischief.
A mystery has developed at Jordan though; children have begun to disappear. Starting with the orphans and street children, but now the Gyptians kids are beginning to be kidnapped by the ' Gobblers' .
Enter Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman); an affluent, beautiful, and powerful woman who is an ally of the Magesterium; a semi-religious force intent on keeping the knowledge of Dust secret. Mrs. Coulter asks the Master of Jordan College if she can ' borrow' Lyra for a while, and before she leaves, the Master gives Lyra an Alethiometer; a truth-teller.
She whisks Lyra away to the city and society with unknown motives, but soon they become clearer as Lyra discovers Mrs. Coulter is in cohorts with the Gobblers. Lyra and her daemon, Pan (Freddie Highmore), escape Mrs. Coulter and are rescued by Ma Costa and the Gyptians; the clan of Billy Costa, one of her comrades who was kidnapped. Lyra travels to a northern city with the Gyptians where she meets aeronaut Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliot) and the armored bear Iorek Byrnison (Ian McKellan).
Their party complete, Lyra continues her journey into the North to discover Svalbard, the kingdom of the ice bears; meet Serafina Pekkala (Eva Green), Queen of the Witches; find her Uncle Asriel; rescue Billy and Roger, discover the truth about ' intercision' and most of all, to learn about ' Dust' .
~*~
Daniel Craig has more of a cameo appearance in this movie, which is understandable because Asriel really doesn' t play a huge part in the first book, face-time wise. Nicole Kidman is chilling as Mrs. Coulter; perfectly evil and perfectly intriguing at the same time. Dakota Richards is excellent as Lyra. She plays the part exceptionally well, and towards the end of the film you begin to catch glimpses of an older more mature Lyra; the young woman she will inevitably become.
The bear scenes are the best part; the graphics are very good; they did excellently with the daemons. Very believable if you suspend logic for a while. I promise that by the end of the movie you will want a daemon of your own.
For those who have qualms about the Golden Compass because of the ' anti-Christian' and ' against God' reputation it has received, the religious implications in the movie are slight enough to be unoffensive. The Magesterium represents the antagonist religious cult that is trying to ' protect' people but ends up harming them instead. Pullman' s books have more controversial material in them, but this has been toned down in the movie for sake of political correctness.
Overall it was an excellent film and worth spending the money to see on a big screen.
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