The Golden Compass
Lyra Belacqua (newcomer Dakota Blue Richards) is an 11-year-old girl living at Jordan College, Oxford—a parallel Oxford in another dimension where people's souls follow them around in the form of animals.
Her uncle Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig, brilliant and on screen for all of 15 minutes) is planning a trip to the Arctic to carry out research into Dust—a weird substance that leaks between dimensions.
He's opposed by Lord Boreal (Christopher Lee, brilliant and on screen for all of 15 seconds) and his Magisterium—a shadowy organisation which keeps the general public compliant and as far away as possible from stuff like Dust.
Meanwhile Lyra's best friend Roger is kidnapped and she embarks on a quest to rescue him.
She's pursued by Mrs Coulter (Nicole Kidman, brilliant and on screen for, ooh, about half an hour), who also works for the Magisterium.
Lyra hooks up with cowboy explorer Lee Scoresby who takes her to the Arctic to track down Roger—with the help of the Alethiometer, a truth-detecting device and the ‘Golden Compass' of the title.
Confused? You will be—especially if you've not read the books. The problem with The Golden Compass is there's just too much to pack in.
With the exception of the opening scenes, virtually nothing takes more than five minutes.
Everything whooshes past in the blink of an eye—a massive shame because it's sometimes tricky to keep track of what's important and why, and you seldom get chance to admire the work that's gone into the look of this film.
Otherwise? Pretty close to perfect. The supporting cast are excellent—especially Simon McBurney as the oily Fra Pavel and Jim Carter as John Faa.
The special effects are astonishing—especially the animal-like daemons that follow the characters around. And the soundtrack is rousing stuff.
This is classic Christmas family fare which outshines even the likes of Potter and Narnia in its beauty, inventiveness and astonishing lack of any duff bits whatsoever.
The agonising wait for the sequels starts now.
If you liked...The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, Harry Potter.
Watch the trailer for this fantastic movie below...
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Comment number: 92009366
Offensive? Report commentThe author Philip Pullman is a fascinating writer and thinker, this movie is regenerating classic, ancient symbolism for a modern audience and pointing them towards spiritual consciousness in ways few seem to understand. But that's the power of symbolism, your pysche is moved to dance to it without your conscious mind being able to name the tune. It will be interesting to see what he has to say to cinema audiences around the country next Sunday when he is broadcast live via satellite from the Phoenix in Oxford in a special interview with a mythology enthusiast.
Comment number: 92063694
Offensive? Report commentGood review, my reaction exactly.
But what's this? No mention of Kate Bush's dizzyingly lovely song? At the sneak preview last night, her voice stopped those crowding out of the theatre in their tracks to listen, with the gabbers being shushed by others so they could hear better.