The Golden Compass DVD

Advantages: Excellent animation, great story and fine acting.
Disadvantages: Just possibly the lack of ending.

...to see this film at the cinema with virtually no preconceptions apart from what I had seen on a trailer at a previous film. Normally I know a good bit about where the story came from and who I was going to be watching on screen but this time I just went and saw it as a movie. We went as a family, age range of five to fifteen to us oldies so I think I have a pretty good idea of what the film means to different ages, more on later. To the story:- ...
...are two ways of watching the film, firstly as a journey through a fantasy world, a most enjoyable flight on the wings of imagination. Or there is the analytical way, looking at the antiestablishment, anti religious undertones, something that would go over the heads of younger viewers and not a few older ones as well perhaps. Of course the third way would be to know the backdrop but ignore it and enjoy the film just as a story. Perhaps the third way ... Read review

Advantages: great cast
Disadvantages: almost all of it

To day I went to the cinema to see The Golden Compass. I had no idea what this was about apart from what id seen on the adverts on TV. So I will right the review based only on what I saw on the screen, no extra bits about who made it, the full cast list or how much money it made at the box office, just my honest opinion about what happened on the screen. Here goes, the film is set in a alternate dimension where every one has a demon guide in the ...
...they have no relevance in the film) the land is ruled by the "magistarium" a kind of monarchy who don't want any one to know about other dimensions (like ours) and oppose free thinking. This land is home to talking animal's witches and gyptians (these are like gypsies but like to travel by ship not caravan) amists all this is a young girls called Lyra. She is 12 years old and lives in a boarding school where her rich uncle sent her. She is hard to ... Read review

Advantages: It aesthetics are impressive
Disadvantages: The perfomances are poor and the story is quite rushed

he Golden Compass is the latest fantasy adventure to come our way. Like many of the fantasy films that have come out in recent years (Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia), The Golden Compass was originally a book. The Golden Compass (Northern Lights to many including myself) was the first book in Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials Trilogy. However, I believe it can be said that The Golden Compass did not do justice to its original medium. The ...
...restraints) meaning that some of the less superficial aspects of the story may have been over looked. The setting for The Golden Compass is an alternate world from our own, Jordan in Oxford. It is a world where people have daemons in the form of animals that are similar to our own conscience and soul. The story revolves around a young girl named Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) who lives in Jordan College and is niece of Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig). The ... Read review

Advantages: good visuals
Disadvantages: badly written script, poor dialogue

I have not read the book so my review will be based on the film adaptation alone. From the first minutes you are drawn into a parallel world to our own. It is a different world but at the same time it has similar elements to our world. The opening scenes are set in Oxford which brings an element of familiarity and puts you at ease somehow. The audience instantly connects. However, after a few minutes in the film, you start feeling a bit left out. ...
...I was quite taken by the creatures known as "daemons", which are animals (pets really) that reflect the soul of their owners. Some of the characters are interesting like the enigmatic Mrs Coulter played by the divine Nicole Kidman or Iorek Byrnison masterfully voiced by Sir Ian Mc Kellen. But ultimately it was the lack of charisma from the central character Lyra Belacqua as played by Dakota Blue Richards and the badly written script that made me ... Read review

Advantages: for kids big and small
Disadvantages: none

THE GOLDEN COMPASS. The plot: The plot on this is pretty good, it starts off with this orphan girl named lyra. In her world every human person has a pet which guides them and in this film they are called daemon's. Because she is young, Lyra's daemon can change his shape to appear as any animal he chooses. Adults' daemons settle in to one shape and don't change. There has been many children going missing from lyras town and they have been getting ...
...then gets into trouble with the leader of the goblins and then runs away from her ( yes the leader of the goblins turns out to be a woman) she then gets saved by the Egyptians and they all go on the hunt for the missing children. The cast:  Nicole Kidman ... Marisa Coulter  Daniel Craig ... Lord Asriel  Dakota Blue Richards ... Lyra Belacqua  Ben Walker ... Roger  Freddie Highmore ... Pantalaimon ... Read review

Advantages: The visuals were awesome and they got the Daemons spot on.
Disadvantages: Their adaptation was beyond poor and the casting was sub-par.

...... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Fun and great acting and special effects
Disadvantages: Could be a little confusing to some people

...I have just purchased and watched this DVD and thought I would share my views on it as I thought it to be an excellent film and brilliant for all the family to watch. The Plot - The story follows Lyra who lives in another universe where everybody has their own daemons, which are their souls and these are animals. There is a group of people who want to take away children's daemons and do this by snatching them away and separating them from their daemons. Another group want to stop them and Lyra is the only person who can read the Golden Compass which is also known as an Alethiometer, which tells her the truth. She uses this to find out where the missing children are to rescue them. There are numerous other events along the way to that all add to this great story! The Characters - I thought the characters were great and the actors... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Great acting, direction and special effects
Disadvantages: Slight confusion, difficulty from book to screen in descriptions

...The Golden Compass is the 2007 film directed by Chris Weitz based on Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials: Northern Lights. The Plot In a parallel universe, young Lyra Belacqua is a mischievous girl under the tuition of the Master of Jordan College, Oxford, sent there by her uncle, Lord Asriel, intrepid explorer. She overhears a presentation by her uncle about 'Dust', a mysterious substance which seems to be entering via another world and floating through people's daemons (external souls in the form of animals) into people. Asriel's findings go against the Magisterium, followers of the Authority, and are considered heretic. Meanwhile, children are disappearing, taken by the Gobblers, and, when Lyra finds out that Dust and the missing children are all rumoured to be in the North, in Svalbard, home of the Armoured Polar Bears, she sets... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful