I went to the theater to see the Golden Compass today.
The Golden Compass stars Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Richards, Sam Elliott, Eva Green, and features the voice of Ian McKellen as Iorek.
Based on the bestselling British fantasy Philip Pullman's novel, the Golden Compass opens with a description of Dust, and a view into Lyra's world in a way that readers of the second novel will appreciate as a visual clue.
From here, we quickly delve into the Victorian Steampunkish world of Lyra Belacqua, foundling at Jordan College in Oxford, England. A world where souls manifest as creatures, a world of Gyptians (water-loving Gypsies), Witches, armored bears, and zeppelins. And of course the mysterious and malevolent Magisterium, here a much more secular institution devoted to stopping the researches of Lyra's uncle Lord Asriel.
The ragamuffin Lyra's life at the college is upset, though, by the return of Lord Asriel, the arrival of the alluring and dangerous Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman in a role she was born to play), and a trek to the furthest north to find missing children, and the secret of the strange substance called Dust.
The good:
The visuals are top notch. Daemons are wonderfully visioned, and done within the rules of the books. We get to show, not tell how they work. The tech and the alternate world that Lyra inhabits. Dakota does a good job with Lyra, with what she is given.
The neutral:
Lots and lots of changes from the book, and the movie ends before the book does. The movie thus ends with a "happier" ending, since a tragedy that occurs in the last chapters of the novel does not occur. I can see why this was done (marketing reasons) although I am ambivalent as to its success. The Magisterium is made nearly completely secular. There is only one slip up, if if it is that, that suggests that the Magisterium has anything to do with religion whatsoever. Without this anchoring though, it makes the point and the role of it in society much harder to fathom.
The bad:
The movie moves at a rich sedate, stately pace of world building and then rushes around in the final reel toward resolution. That last reel is a bit of a hash, with events from the book changed and definitely out of sequence (even above and beyond the ending situation). Ian, bless his heart, sounds too old to play Iorek...Iorek is not an "elderly" bear, which is what McKellen's voice gives as a false impression. Too many things, too, are touched on way too lightly and scenes are rushed. I understand that a big book is hard to distill in a screenplay. The movie clocks in at 113 minutes and probably should and could have used another 20-25 minutes. There does seem to be in a number of locations where cuts were made, and the editing is not always seamless. Lyra picks up on how to use the Compass far too easily and quickly, especially since its mentioned in the movie a couple of times that others seem reluctant even to try to use it.
Giving Christopher Lee and Derek Jacobi no name roles purely to make the Magisterium more sinister is a criminal abuse of their talents.
Overall? I wanted more than I ultimately got. Its like a cake which has a beautiful presentation, but the taste doesn't quite live up to its appearance, more's the pity.
Wait for the DVD and rent it is my advice.