Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2912 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-04-28
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 109 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Perhaps it didn’t ignite the box office in quite the way it’d been hoped, but that’s little reason to pass over the qualities of The Golden Compass now it arrives on DVD. Based on the Phillip Pullman novel His Dark Materials--itself the start of the Northern Lights trilogy, the film isn’t without a few problems, but emerges as a quality adaptation.

And you certainly can’t fault The Golden Compass for sheer ambition. The story, for those new to the series, is primarily that of 12-year old Lyra, who is in search of her friend who has been kidnapped. Naturally, this proves to be quite a challenging adventure, not least because it’s through Pullman’s vividly imagined world, crossing dimensions as Lyra travels. The film, while toning down and fiddling with some elements of the source material, stays quite close to the book, and it proves to be a good, if not Lord Of The Rings-standard, adaptation.

What helps The Golden Compass, on top of the strong effects work and scope of the production, is a solid cast, featuring the likes of Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman and Dakota Blue Richards. And it certainly whets the appetite for the next instalment in the series. Whether the muted box office returns put pay to that remains to be seen: for now, at least, The Golden Compass is a good, solid family movie that’s easy to enjoy. --Jon Foster

DVD Description
Based on Philip Pullman's acclaimed His Dark Materials trilogy of books, The Golden Compass follows the epic adventure of Lyra through this dimension-crossing family movie.

Synopsis
THE GOLDEN COMPASS is an adaptation of the first book in the beloved but controversial fantasy series by Phillip Pullman. The story opens with Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) an orphan girl who lives in an alternate world that is similar to earth, but where people's souls exist outside of their bodies in animal form. The people are ruled by a shadowy and oppressive council known as the Magisterium, which is doing it's best to keep everyone from getting information about what is called 'Dust.' Lyra's Uncle Asriel (Daniel Craig) has been researching Dust, and he has seen to it that Lyra is given safe shelter at Jordan College. But when the visiting Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman) arrives, she asks Lyra to accompany her on a trip to the North to meet the Panserbjorne, a race of armoured bears. Before Lyra leaves, the Headmaster gives her a golden compass, a device which only she can read, and from which she can intuit the truth. Lyra leaves with Mrs. Coulter, but when she learns that her friends have been kidnapped by 'Gobblers' she heads out to find them, and soon joins forces with the nomadic Gyptians, some witches, and an armoured bear called Iorek Byrnison (voice by Ian McKellen). Lyra finds her friends, and so discovers the evil plans the Magisterium has cooked up for the world's children. By the film's end, she has vowed to track down her Uncle Asriel, and to discover the true power of Dust.


Hollywood had a tricky time of taming this tale, as Pullman's books portray religion - the Catholic Church in particular - in a less than flattering light. The film version carefully steers clear of these themes, and instead puts its enormous budget into creating visually stunning effects. While fans of the books may find fault with this streamlined version, children are sure to revel in the many talking animals and whimsical airships.

Customer Reviews

Adored the book, hated the film!
I loved The Northern Lights and so when I heard the book was going to be made into a film I was really looking forward to see it. However, it has to be said, this film is the biggest disappointment I've ever seen in a film. I usually don't mind books made into films (love both the Harry Potter films and books!) but this was awful.

It didn't keep to the story and actually said some things in it which weren't true ('there is only one alethiometer left' for example), and Lyra was nothing like I imagined her to be which really spoilt it for me. She seemed stroppy and self centered in an irritating way which I just don't think reflected her character properly. She was likeable in the book, and annoying in the film.

If you enjoyed the books I would recommend not watching this film because it really annoyed me (infact I admit I gave up watching it half way through I was so disappointed with it).

If you didn't read the books I would recommend reading them and not watching this film. I don't like the thought that people might watch this film and then assume the book is just as bad.

Far from golden
Watching the first adaptation of Philip Pullman's excellent trilogy is one part admiration and two parts disappointment. First off, you have to admire the courage of director Chris Weitz, who took in the scope and ambition of these novels, stepped forward from the pack and bravely took the wheel of this vehicle into his hands. Unfortunately, once we were done patting him on the back for that, there's no avoiding the bitter disappointment of realising that our drive has bitten off far more than his ability can chew, and we are being catapulted, arms up and screaming, off of the road.
The truth is that there is so much wrong with this movie that its hard to keep your chin up for it. First off, Ian "if its fantasy I'm compulsory" Mckellen is disgracefully miscast as key character, Iorek Brynison. As Pullman presented him, Iorek is a young, energetic prince that has lost his way, desperately in need of the inadvertent guidance Lyra (our heroine) offers. Mckellen (inevitably) presents Iorek as an aging, disposed king looking to reclaim his long-lost kingdom. This is far enough off the mark to make the character practically unrecognisable to fans of the book (or at least to me) though this of course will not be an issue for those coming to the film without preconceptions.
Secondly, the script is just awful. Hollywood fat-cats only know how several previous rewrites were discarded in favour of this nonsense. Granted, there are a sea of concepts to convey, but so much of the dialogue is descriptive that any attempt to suspend disbelief is broken long before it can gather steam. For example, Lyra bangs her knee and her daemon, Pantalaimon, protests "Careful Lyra, Don't you know that if you get hurt, I hurt too!" Of course she bloody knows! She's twelve years old!! Is this the first time she's experienced any sensory perception whatsoever!!? honestly. This sort of thing could have been done so much more subtly and the film is so rife with similar examples that by the time two hours was through I was raw from it.
Needless to say this has a direct effect on the performances, which despite the talent on show are almost uniformly wooden and poor. The audience in the cinema were made so uncomfortable watching the cast wade through this verbal tripe that my first viewing of the second matrix film was brought to mind. The actors on the screen before you so clearly don't believe in their dialogue or environment that you are left with a brutally clear perception of a series of short set pieces. As the camera fades from each moment you can almost here the director screaming "Cut! Alright lets do it again." In short there is no fluidity at all and no possibility of getting swept along in the performances.
Finally, even the direction manages to strip Pullmans' world of much its grandeur and scope. You get no sense of the majesty, spritualism and influence of the witches (the actually well cast Eva Green is criminally underused as Witch-Queen Serefina Pekkela) and the set piece battles lack any urgency or sense of scale whatsoever. Remember when the orks marched on Helm's deep in the two towers? It was absolutely terrifying. I was crawling up my chair. Contrast that with the battle at the end of the Golden Compass and its easy to see how far this film has fallen from the required mark. The battle here lacks any sense of scale, importance or consequence. Worst of all the frame is so sparsely populated, driven and focussed that we are sadly given the sense that this is more of a mere skirmish, helping Lyra to escape. It looks like a fight in an alpine pub car park. Again, bitterly disappointing.
I won't even get started on the decision to play down the religious aspects or how on earth the producers intend to make this work in the second and third books where this emerges as the overriding drive of the plot. How on earth the death of god and the acsendancy of Metatron can be reinterpreted escapes me entirely. I sense an almighty fudge coming.
Its sad because there is otherwise much here to be admired. Lyra's world is for the briefest of moments through out the film beautifully realised and the animation of the daemons at least is a triumph. There's no doubting the effort. Casting man of the moment Daniel Craig was also a clever decision and hopefully he and Nicole Kidman can combine for something of a success story in the second and third films- assuming they are ever made.
The truth is that this film has been on it way for years, riding a fever pitch of anticipation, and there is no hiding the sadness and disillusionment of the Pullman faithful to see what has become of the first instalment. Forget lord of the rings- think phantom menace. And how sorry I am to say so.

2.5--Golden Compass fails to strike Gold,
I've been looking forward to this film for the past couple of weeks. And while there are a lot of very strong reviews for this film there were one or two which really slated it, so I expected an average forgettable film which might at least entertain me. And I do like fantasy stories.

This movie was an if for me at first, being that it just seemed like one of the many quickly thrown together fantasy novels/movies that have supposed huge followings. However, I found myself sitting in my living room, and to be honest, I was somewhat impressed at first, the effects were very good, and although you can still obviously tell CGI versus live action, very smooth. The actors did a great job with what they had, and what they had is what ruined the movie. The script was rough at best, with randomly thrown together scenes that were leading towards an Aha! moment that never came. The whole movie kept building, and the plot kept thickening. However, in the end we are left with a sub par battle and more questions than when the movie started.

Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) is clearly the star of this adventure that explores the possibility of other, parallel worlds whose interaction with the world as we know it is controlled by various groups of good guys and bad guys, all seeking the source of secrecy contained in a Golden Compass that can only be read by a single girl - Lyra, a poor child living in the presence of scholars. Lyra's uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) places the Golden Compass in Lyra's knowing hands and heads off to the far North to investigate the element that binds all life together - Dust. The tale is set in motion by the enigmatic Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman) who gains Lyra's confidence and offers to take her to the great North. All manner of adventures occur on the journey - friends of Lyra's are threatened to be separated from their various daemons in the cruel hands of the bad guys, Lyra's encounter with a witch Serafina Pekkala (Eva Green), her assistance from a friendly astronaut (Sam Elliott) and an armored bear - and with all fantasies, good prevails - or does it?

It seems as if the sole purpose for this movie was to be the directors vehicle for a sequel, as the end comes at a point in the story which traditionally would be the arc of the plot, however we end up getting rolling credits in place of explanation. If there is one thing that I did actually enjoy in this movie, I will say once again, the Golden Compass was visually pleasant and well acted but lacked direction. In the end I saw a fantasy adventure which left me longing for more scenes of fighting polar bears. While my kids saw, a somewhat disjointed visual presentation of a well loved book series. Even though I've encountered the glitz and general awe over Nicole Kidman's wardrobe, the overall experience wasn't so delightful.