The Golden Compass is another one of fantasy-action movie that tries to get your kids excited with flashy visuals and fantastical creatures. The movie tells the first story in Philip Pullman’s first story in the His Dark Materials trilogy.
Story stars Lyra Belacqua, a 12-year-old girl who sets out to rescue her friend who was kidnapped by the mysterious Gobblers, and to reunite with her uncle who is in the North trying to mount an expedition to the other parallel worlds by using Dust. This parallel Earth is ruled by the Magisterium, a powerful organization bent on controlling all actions and thoughts, not unlike a totalitarian government or, say, the Catholic Church.
The books and the movies have been labeled anti-Christian, and thankfully it has been toned down in the movie for a commercial success. Unfortunately, the creative force behind the movie forgot a few key things to make it better than just mediocre.
The world is rich, and the visuals are powerful, mostly. It takes awhile to explain all the concepts (such as daemons, shape-shifting animals containing the child’s soul, creativity and conscience. They are directly linked so injuring them will injure the linked children as well). Magisterium seeks to sever the link between the daemon and the child to destroy the child’s sense of identity and independence. If this material is too dense, just imagine what a child would think when you layer on the anti-establishment and anti-religion message.
Another important aspect of the movie is that it ends abruptly, apparently designed to provide a happy ending to movie watchers, except it doesn’t resolve anything and hardly explains anything (for part of the cut ending, watch this video). The Golden Compass is best enjoyed on a high-definition Blu-Ray disk as you marvel at the scenes, and just not focus on the plot, character development or coherence.
Rating: 55%
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