Review of The Golden Compass (2007) by Sandra C — 07 Apr 2012

Not as bad as everyone says, but "The Golden Compass" was a letdown for me who I read the book(s). This is a movie that tries to please both kids and adults, but to be truth I'm not really sure this is a movie for kids (a certain part of the plot is just terribly cruel and difficult to accept). While watching it I had this strong feeling that what I was seeing didn't matter -- it's like if this movie is about the meaningless things that happen in the book, and not about the important things that made 'The Golden Compass' one of my favourite books of my childhood. It was just plain wrong, soulless.

The soundtrack was just awful, it didn't lead me through this wonderful story, but it kept me down, it disturbed me. I don't think Dakota Blue Richards was the right choice to play Lyra, and this movie pushed too much on Nicole Kidman being in the movie -- this is not a movie about Nicole Kidman, it's a fantasy movie! Mrs Coulter in my mind was a fat, blonde 40 woman -- you can see why I was disappointed by these casting choices... Eva Green, on the other hand, was the perfect Serafina Pekkala, and probably the one and only 'thing' I really liked about this movie. She just behaved and moved like a real witch!

That said, special effects were good. Locations and sets were quite detailed, but not used in the proper way: they should have been magical, the whole project should have made me feel something but it didn't. It was flat. Emotionless and ridiculous at some point. Iorek Byrinson for example: I just loved him in the books, and I also loved the special bond that he established with Lyra -- Well, I didn't feel anything for him in the movie. I almost disliked him.

But the biggest mistake that Chris Weitz made was changing the ending: that didn't feel like an ending at all! The last pages of the book were so powerful, dramatic, mean, desperate... they are the reason why I kept on reading the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. And the second and third book are the reason why I love this story -- the first book was nothing special but it could have been turned into a magnificent movie no matter what.

I'd watch the movie if I was you. Just because I think this is a very personal thing -- you might like it if you didn't read the books. It's not horrible. But my advice would be, read the entire trilogy before or after -- because the other books are magnificent!