This film was the bane of my existence driving me insane each time I saved it on the DVR only to find that my wife or child managed to burn me by deleting it. For nearly a year this film as proved elusive until one day about two months ago.
Of course I only just had the time to watch the film last night, and I was pleasantly surprised with the film’s visual imagery and the director’s overwhelming attempt to make a story that clung together. Sadly there was an overwhelming feeling that something was just plain missing, and the story was quite slow to unfold.
Still Nicole Kidman was looking yummy and when I realized that this was built up to be a trilogy I was quite happy (as trilogies have a tendancy to redeem themselves completely at somepoint during the story) that I’d get to see more of her character Mrs. Coulter. again.
The story focuses on the character Lyra who escapes from her Harry Potter-esque finishing school having been given the last of the Alethiometers in their world–The Golden Compass; a device which allows you to see the ‘truth’ through time by harnessing the power of dust…this is vaguelly alluded to as being the very fabric that not only holds the universe together, but binds one world to the next (theirs being one, ours being another). Everyone in this world has a demon (their soul) that had taken an animal form and walks next to them. Children–such as Lyra–have demons that shape-shift because they are sensitive to the powers and influence of dust. The baddies in the film are known as the Magesterium. Their goal is to harness the power of the dust and take over the next world (one assumes it’s ours, but there’s really no obviousness the film). They’re secondary goal seems to be (and it really really isn’t explained in the film) to separate children from their demons in the hopes that they will no longer “suffer” from the influence of dust. The reality is (and one again it’s not really explained in the film) that the Magesterium doesn’t want anyone else to know about or learn about the dust such that they will be the only ones who will try to harness its power and attack/take over/destroy the next world.
As talk of dust and other such tomfoolery are banned in this world so is the discussion of Alethiometers. At the Magesterium’s request all of them were destroyed…the significance of the Alethiometer in the film is sorely missed (from what I understand from the books), and it’s really more of a play thing that gets used a couple of times as a deux ex machina to move the characters from one situation to the next–quite simply lining up impossibly disparate aspects of the story.
And finally there is Daniel Craig who brings his cool crisp no shitting around bond performance to Compass. He plays Lord Asriel who comes to Harry Potter University to ask for the support and funding of the academia so that he can travel to the North (one assumes the North Pole because there’s ice and snow) to find out why dust is flowing from the sky through a demon into a man who just stands there. He needs the funds because the location is far and he must travel alone. The HPU staff agree to fund him against the Magesterium’s wishes, and off he goes…we see him infrequently in the film, and while there are subtle etchings that his role has been played down either due to budget holes or the studio’s will his moments are memorable; but barely move the plot along.
Clearly something has been missed in the adaptation from the novel–a book I have yet to read, so I can’t even comment on the studio’s departure from the book; and I say studio because even the director Chris Weitz has said that he wanted the next two to be much more faithful to the books. Good on you mate. Too bad the studio cancelled the project due to gaps in the economy, and the film’s overall ability to perform in the box office despite a memorable video game.
Overall rating: Tepid.
