The Golden Compass

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6 out of 10

I'll start by saying I am a massive fan of the books, but given the tales of a rather turbulent production I was keeping my hopes for the film in check. The trailers had looked visually stunning, but I was concerned about how they would get such a complex story into a couple of hours.

One thing that struck me pretty early on in the film was that the screenplay really wasn't up to the job. The story moved from scene to scene at such a speed that I imagine many who came to the film without having read the books would have been lost.

The three main actors did fine jobs: Kidman proved to be an admirable Mrs Coulter, and Daniel Craig's brief appearances as Lord Asriel were also up to the job. The star though was Dakota Blue Richards, for a first-timer I thought she captured Lyra extremely well.

The CGI was pretty impressive even if the bear fight, while visually spectacular, didn't really engage the viewer. Iorek was portrayed well and Eva Green produced an interesting take on Serafina Pekkala. However, if you've read the books you'll know that inter-character relationships, especially between Lyra and Iorek, play a huge rôle in the story, but they just weren't very well reproduced here.

In summary then, it could have been a lot better but, if I'm honest, I was expecting worse. The film was ok overall but for me just lacked a steady flow and any real heart. I hope they build on this and produce the final two films, hopefully without the traumatic approach to production and with a better screenplay.

Comments

Colin said…
I came into the film without having read the books, and with a certain amount of trepidation about going to see something akin to Harry Potter with bears.
I was pleasantly surprised and my stepson enjoyed it too. He didn't seem to get lost and he enjoyed it an awful lot more than the last Harry Potter film.
I would have given it at least a 7.
7:45 pm
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