The Golden Compass

By Mal -

7 out of 10

Despite feeling incredibly condensed, I rather liked The Golden Compass. Fantasy isn’t normally my thing, but at least this wasn’t fairytale stuff. In fact, I'm quite keen to see the following 2 episodes in the trilogy. Who knows - I might even get the books on which they're based.

Back to the film, though, and I can't get away from the pacing of it. Nearly every single scene feels rushed. Not in a thrown-together sense, but as if someone were trying to give you a summary of the story in very limited time. Given this, there was a fair amount of exposition too. I don't know what the running length was, but it could've easily managed another half hour, maybe even 45 minutes, and I wouldn't have complained. It really needed to take a breath and expand upon various plot- and character-development scenes, some of which lasted less than 10 seconds.

Still, the quality of the story and the integrity of its setting were good enough to pull it through. Fingers crossed for more of the same next time out. Just a little bit slower.

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