Review of The Golden Compass (2007) by Kevinr. — 10 Dec 2007

I haven't read the books, but could still feel that some significant things must be missing from the original story. All bad fantasies lack one essential quality--immersiveness. The world that they create has to seem real and completely whole.

LOTR accomplished this. This movie does not. The fantasy elements just seem silly and contrived (except for the daemon thing) and are pulled out of the sack whenever it's convenient. Need a deus ex machina--how about an armored bear that suddenly appears out of nowhere? Or a convenient flock of rescue witches? Like the worst of the Harry Potter movies, where a hastily-remembered spell saves the day, resolutions here are never really struggled for.

ALSO--what the hell is Sam Eliot doing in this movie with his absurd cowboy twang (has there ever been a more one-trick pony than this guy)? I found myself predicting his lines before he said them, and, again, I never read the books.