Review of The Golden Compass (2007) by Jake C — 01 Mar 2012

Amidst the sea of hype for the newest Harry Potter or Narnia movie, The Golden Compass is a film that seemed to get lost along the way. Despite being a relative success, it seemed to come and go without much notice. A shame really, since it actually is quite good.

The Golden Compass presents its fantasy in a way that is admittedly a bit more original than those other two fantasy giants of this generation. It takes place in a parallel world that is "not that different from our own." Yeah it's pretty similar, except for the armoured bears, witches, and talking spirit animals. You know, minor differences. Apparently in this world people's souls live outside their bodies as animal spirits. Get used to that idea, because you're going to see a lot of CG spirit animals (referred to as dæmons) wandering around in this flick. While the effects for these creatures are good, I was always very aware of the fact that they were CG and not really there. Also, since there is a dæmon for every human who ever appears on screen, the film can sometimes start to feel a little crowded. Nevertheless, I did enjoy seeing each characters animal, and it is a wholly original idea that I've never seen before in a fantasy universe.

Another difference this world has to ours is an authoritarian group called the Magisterium, an organization that is obssesed with maintaining it's own power and pushing down all free thinkers. They are not happy with Lord Asriel's (uncle to main character Lyra) investigation into a cosmic matter known as "dust." Nevertheless, he launches an expedition to the north to investigate the matter further. Meanwhile, a member of the Magistarium named Mrs. Coulter takes Lyra north on her own expedition. Beforehand Lyra is given by the head of the college she stays at the last remaining alethiometer, the titles Golden Compass, a device which "reveals the truth." The Magistarium had the rest of the devices destroyed. Why the college is trusting this device to a 12 year-old girl I'm not entirely sure, but then again this is fantasy and choices like that are common place.

The films plot is a complex one, and it's universe it vast. Despite this, it never gets convuluted or difficult to follow. We the viewers always know where we are, who we're watching, and what they're trying to accomplish. We are also introduced to a hefty ammount of interesting characters. Unfortunately though only Lyra and her dæmon Pan get that much focus, and as interesting as they are they weren't my favorite characters. I liked Daniel Craig's performance of Lord Asriel, and I loved Sam Elliot as Texan aeronaut Lee Scoresby, but both these characters are painfully underused.

I've never read any of the His Dark Materials novels, the first of which this film was based on, but now I really want to. The film is at it's best when it's showing characters on their journey across vast landscapes or engaging in massive battles. Character development, or even character representation is a bit lacking. The film can still stand on it's own despite this. It looks great, has some wonderful performances, and does a magnificent job of capturing that epic feel.