At the Movies: The Golden Compass
Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, of which "The Golden Compass" (or, originally, "The Northern Lights") is the first book, is an sprawling tale of free will versus authority, of the corrupting influences of power, and the end of childhood innocence. It's a fantasy, and a big one, and would be enjoyed by many fans of Rowling's Harry Potter books.
I had hoped that this film wasn't as muddled as most of the reviews I had read made it out to be. Alas, it turned out to be fragmented and inert, rushed and choppy, with only a moment or two of magic. The CG animals, very much the technological stars of the film, were a mixed lot: the animal representations of each person's soul looked quite good, with the notable exception of the cats. The polar bears, on the other hand, fared much less well. Looking too much like the polar bears from Coke ads, and without any weight when running or moving, they were a major disappointment. The only time the great warrior bears of the book had any real weight and power was during a fairly well-staged battle between an exiled bear prince and the bear who killed his father and claimed the throne for himself. Even then, the fight was hampered by an over-use of CGI camera work (as was the rest of the film), where the camera zooms in and spins around for no real storytelling purpose, but just because it a) can, b) costs money, and c) is supposed to make things look real advanced.
As for the narrative itself, it was so rushed that the pace of the film was relentlessly one-note, without shape or form. Short scene after short scene felt strung together with the sense that more details were missing, that a minute or two of character development here or there would have made us care about these people, this girl, and her attempt to save her friends who were kidnapped to the far north of the world.
There were a few saving graces, notably Nicole Kidman. Fabulously nasty and radiant, she was easily the best thing about the movie. The production design in London was very, very good (I wouldn't mind taking a ride on one of those electro-powered dirigibles), and the scene of the intercission process was suitably painful to watch.
As for the anti-(Catholic) Church nature of the books, it's in the movie. You'd have to try pretty hard not to see it. The books are all about free will vs. authority, about the end of youth and the quite Biblical sense of awareness of self once tasting the knowledge of adolescence. It is toned down from what you find in the books, but it's still very much there.
I doubt if New Line Studios will make a sequel. With the film making less than $30 million on its opening weekend and despite an excellent $55 million overseas on its first weekend, the critical and commercial yawn will be enough to kill the next two films. Perhaps in the hands of a better writer/director, this film would have been better, but the next two films become even more strange, more anti-authoritarian, and more difficult to translate in to movies. No ice bears, no witches, just a lot more weirdness, and the suffering of children. Not something the studio is likely to gamble on.
