Review: The Golden Compass (2007)

Daniel Craig with a beard. Nicole Kidman as a potentially evil religious zealot with a monkey companion. Ian McKellen as a large, violently homicidal polar bear. All this and the promise of a story to rival that of Lord of the Rings? Sounds utterly marvelous.

That’s what I thought before I saw it…

That and so much more. Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series has, for a long time now, been the undisputed champion of my affections, ranking as my absolute favorite collection (book-wise). Of course, it is the main source of my argument against stories with child protagonists being labeled as children’s stories, but that is a rant for another day. In any case, I entered the theater for the film version with the highest of expectations, only to have them (*poetic license warning*) dashed to pieces against the jagged rock of Hollywood stupidity. Let’s break down why:

But first! For those non-readers among you, here’s a brief breakdown of the story, which oddly enough will give you less spoilers than that trailer up there. The Golden Compass is about a seemingly unimportant young girl (from a dimension parallel to our own) who gets unwillingly thrust into the heart of a battle to discover he mystery behind a rash of disappearances. Children are being stolen off the streets by a group known as the Gobblers, who are more connected than anyone could have imagined. Lyra, along with her spiritual companion Pan as well as the mysterious Golden Compass (also thrust upon her), which tells the user secrets of the world. Unknowingly, Lyra begins a journey that will ultimately lead to her deciding the fate of not only her own world, but all others as well (did I mention she’s from another dimension?).

Anyway, back to my rant.

To start off, the pace of the film was utterly horrific. Whether this was an issue of editing or Chris Weitz’s poor direction is hard to say, but you feel this odd pull between being forced through the arc of plot and trapped in sludge of unnecessary exposition. Along with that, it feels as though the interesting elements of the story were quickly skirted past, such as the seemingly random appearance of sexy witch Serafina Pekkala (played well enough by Eva Green). In the meantime, unnecessary development of unimportant characters (such as that one member of the Magisterium whose name I simply can’t remember) was given precedent. In the end, it felt as though Chris Weitz decided to throw not only the narrative arc of the novel but the entire idea of film structuring out the window.

Probably the greatest disappointment of the film was Nicole Kidman’s performance as the mysterious Mrs. Coulter, who rivals both Lord Voldemort and Sauron in notoriety as a fantasy villain. Of course, I don’t blame Miss Kidman in the slightest for this issue. In fact, I envisioned her in the role as I was reading the novel for the first time, before the idea for a film was even addressed. All mystery was removed from her portrayal in the film, where she may as well have had a sign saying “EVIL” plastered on her face from her first entrance. Even so, Kidman wasn’t ever given the opportunity to be actually evil in the slightest. The closest the audience reaches to any real fear of her is a passing observation that her monkey is kind of a jerk. Add to all that the fact that you are meant to feel sympathetic to her at a moment’s notice, a stretch that might have been possible if she had been portrayed correctly in her early moments. In other words, a sad disappointment on all accounts.

Now, of course, it is impossible to discuss this film without addressing the religious debate surrounding both it and the original novel. I must say that the debate itself is what killed this movie. In reading the trilogy of novels, there is little overt religiosity until the second installment, and even then there are only a few oblique references to Adam and Eve. It is not until the final book that it becomes an all-out war against God. In fact, the screenplay for Compass actually adds anti-religious references not present in the original work. Of course, the word God is replaced with Authority, so only those who had read the series would even be able to see those elements. Thus, the film’s creators tried to appease fans of Pullman’s work by keeping the anti-religious message in while calming Christian right by “taking it out”. In the end, they failed at both. Had they simply worked to remain true to the feeling of the novel, or even expressly dealt with the religious elements, they would have saved themselves from alienating their entire audience.

Also, on a final note, the thrilling, shocking, and incredibly important cliffhanger ending to the book was completely omitted from the film, also as a last ditch effort for the filmmakers to save their necks from religious backlash, driving a final nail into the coffin by further distancing themselves from their only built-in audience: Pullman fans. Not that returning the ending would have saved them, but it may have caused New Line to feel more compelled to green-light a sequel.

Alright, end of rant.

All of this having been said, the film was not a complete failure. It was far superior to the slew of post-Harry children’s fantasies being released (please don’t even get me started on Eragon; that will be for another day). Visually, the piece was utterly stunning, with a giant wooden Zeppelin and fights between giant armored bears. Daemons, the animal spirits that act as living souls of humans in the story, were incredibly cool, especially Lyra’s shape-shifting Daemon Pan (voiced by Freddie Highmore). Also, the performances (with the exception of Nicole Kidman’s disappointing leash) were quite acceptable representations of the originals. So, there were several worthwhile elements to the movie,

In conclusion: the film was a total insult to its target audience (fans of the original work), but not horrific by film standards. Give it a chance and take a look, if only so that the filmmakers can redeem themselves with the second installment, The Subtle Knife (my favorite in the series).