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Title: The Golden Compass
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The year just doesn’t feel complete unless someone releases at least one controversial movie. Earlier this year many people felt Michael Moore would be the one to release the years great controversy with “Sicko,” his documentary about the health care industry. Problem is, people are getting used to Moore, and feel he is not worth spending much time on these days, and so they refocused their attention on “The Golden Compass,” based on the first book in Phillip Pullman’s best selling anti-religious trilogy “His Dark Materials.” While these books have sold over fifteen million copies, in America they are enjoyed by only a small percent of America’s population, who fancy C.S. Lewis’s Christian themed “The Chronicles of Narnia” a tad bit more. Though the Catholic Church has called for a boycott, I feel such action isn’t much needed at this point.
Chris Weitz (who also serves as director) has omitted as many religious references as he could out of the screenplay. They may be important to the book, but no one is going to see a $180 million dollar epic that throws insults at the Bible, so the movie will have to do without them. Instead of going against the church, little Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) and her daemon Pan (Freddie Highmore) are now facing the Magisterium instead (though Magisterium is actually a real life group inside the Catholic Church, so maybe the church still has a point). The Magisterium is lead by the sexy Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman), who is as deceiving as she is good looking. She seduces Lyra into joining her on a crusade to the North Pole, when Lyra suspects something is wrong and flees with Pan.
On her way she runs into several colorful characters, the most notable being Lee Scoresby, played by Sam Elliot sporting a much bigger moustache then usual. Scoresby suggests that if Lyra is going on a quest to save the world from the Magisterium, she might want to hire an armored bear named Iorek Byrnison (Ian McKellen). To further help Lyra on her quest, she is given an Alethiometer, aka, the Golden Compass. The Alethiometer is said to help Lyra see the future, but rather then see how the contraption works we simply see Lyra close her eyes, and picture things from gold particles known as Dust. If you want to know what the main source of the controversy is about, then I’ll spoil it and tell you that Dust is a large part of the controversy, though what it actually does won’t be discovered for another two movies.
Though “The Golden Compass” is another trilogy where unlikely heros band together to save mankind, it’s also unique in that it bathes in scientific theology. Though the book was easily the most scientific children’s book I had ever read, the movie tends to simplify things greatly, to the point where you might just have to trust that the characters know what their talking about once in awhile. Whether this was done primarily for the kids or primarily to erase more religious references will most likely be up for debate. Though at times confusing, and slow to start, “The Golden Compass” ultimately works as a fun tech show. The story is not dumb, but actually rather smart and complicated. The characters are one sided at the moment, but they have enough personality to hold your interest throughout the movie.
The question ultimately remains is this: Should you take your kids to see this. Well, that depends really. Despite all the controversy this movie has garnered, I don’t think parents have to be worried about anything anti-religious...well, nothing anti-religious yet anyway. This movie is rated PG-13 for “for sequences of fantasy violence.” I would say the rating is correct but the description is wrong. I would label the reason as “for scenes of shocking, brutal violence.” Really, the movie is fairly cartoonish for most of the film, it’s just a couple of key scenes where some truly brutal violence takes place. I don’t want to spoil anything, but concerned parents may want to investigate a scene involving two bears fighting, which may give them a better idea about what they are getting into.
“The Golden Compass” is not the next “Lord of the Rings.” It starts slow, is a bit cliched, and it gets bogged down by it’s own science on more then one occasion. On the other hand it has likable characters, impressive CGI and action sequences, and aside from a forced happy ending (I suppose the original grim, cliffhanger ending will show up in “The Subtle Knife”), the movie is actually fairly daring and intelligent. It’s not exactly the must see film of the year, but it’s certainly worth a trip to the theaters to see. For families though, eh, chances are “Enchanted” and “Mr. Magoriums Wonder Emporium” are a much safer bets.
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -
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