After what must be years of waiting having read ‘Northern Lights’ quite a while ago (well the first time anyway) and over a year of anticipation after hearing about this film’s ‘green lighting’ I finally saw ‘The Golden Compass’.
For a start I will say don’t believe all the negative press this film is receiving, it is definitely better than expected. The visuals are stunning, I especially love the daemon effects so I definitely praise the animators for the hard work on that front, it’s hard enough to render one realistic looking animal let a film full of them and have them seamlessly blend in with their human counterparts. There were a few shaky instances in the effects which to me didn’t quite work but in a world where fantasy successfully became reality they at least had my inner child fooled.
Now for the crunch part, the film is completely full of holes. I am aware this is a very complex book to adapt (god help them *no pun intended hehe* with the next two as they are by far more complicated) but I do wish they had just done a true adaptation of the novel and not attempted to pander to everyone in leaving out the fundamentals, this book is about one child’s quest against the magisterium so why couldn’t they keep it that way. It was blatantly obvious even though extremely watered down that the film was a comment on religion and control. I found the pacing very awkward, it seems they rushed to get as many major plot advancements into 2 hours as possible which did leave the watcher wondering where the hell the film was actually going. Luckily having read the books I entered the cinema knowing the story but I can only imagine how hard the film must be for someone who hasn’t encountered Pullman’s novels.
My huge major moan now, THEY LEFT OFF THE ENDING!! How could they do that the book ends on a huge cliffhanger which apparently has been left in the can as a preview for the next film. This already fills me with dread as this will take away from most of the drama of the amazing end to ‘Northern Lights’ plus isn’t there honestly enough information in ‘The Subtle Knife’ to fill two films so why take part of ‘Northern Lights’ to bulk it up it just isn’t necessary. Adding insult to injury is the fact that the second book does follow a slightly different story *sigh* will Hollywood ever learn to leave something alone.
The casting in my opinion was top notch Dakota Blue Richards really pulled off Lyra spectacularly. Lyra was another reason I was dreading this adaptation as I can’t see her as being the easiest character to play but she did an excellent turn as the ragamuffin, stubborn, tomboy we all know and love. Nicole Kidman was excellently cast as Mrs. Coulter she fit the image in my mind perfectly but she wasn’t cold and icy enough in my opinion and I swear her role was larger. Daniel Craig to me wasn’t the Lord Asriel I imagined for a start he wasn’t stern enough and his role also seemed minute in comparison to the book. Iorek Byrnison stole the show in my opinion, I so love that polar bear. Excellently voice acted by Ian McKellen, I want Iorek cuddles *pouts*. Pan was adorable; I was panicing they wouldn’t get him right but in my eyes they did Freddie Highmore’s voice acting was again superb. It seemed with the exception of Lyra the show was stolen by the CG daemons and ice bears.
So to sum up my review the film is a good watch, very choppy and full of holes but it does take you on something that slightly resembles the first journey in the ‘His Dark Materials’ but the book is so much BETTER! It is worthy of the cinema if just for the effects and just a trip to enjoy some fantasy magic.
Hopefully they will learn from their mistakes with this film and the adaptations of ‘The Subtle Knife’ and ‘The Amber Spyglass’ will be a vast improvement on this first outing to Pullman’s universe. That said I will always keep the books close to my heart, especially my signed copy of ‘The Amber Spyglass’ thank you Phillip *grins*
Related posts:
- Film Review: The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep
- Film Review – The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
- Film Review – The Eye (2008)
- Film Review – The Orphange (El Orfanato)
- Film Review – The Other Boleyn Girl
A lot of people seem to prefer the book, or at least read it first. If you’re one of them you might like one of these t-shirts with a design promoting the book by Philip Pullman.
Look under Books & Films at
The link was dropped
MJR Productions
Great review, Chiisuki
I too read the trilogy a few years ago and absolutely love them, and although the film was enjoyable on the surface, deep down it didn’t do anything special at all.
I agree that the casting’s really weird (bar Kidman, McKellen and Richards), which gave me the impression that they just bulked it up with Hollywood stars for the sake of getting good ratings (due to their status).
What I don’t understand is a.) why they decided to make it for kids, considering the books’ controversial and dark nature; and b.) why they renamed it to ‘The Golden Compass’ when they clearly name it both that AND the Alethiometer in the film! What’s the point?? It just weakens it even more! >_<
Oh, and Iorek could’ve been FAR more badass, from a design point of view. ;P But maybe I’m just being bitter because he and Serafina Pekkala were my favourite characters yet they both turned out to be unimpressive in the film (Iorek for the design, Serafina for the actress).
Those are my thoughts, anyway ;P
~~CheeB