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Film Title: The Golden Compass

 Best for ages: 10 and up.

Movie Website: Click Here

Year Released: 2007

Rated: PG-13 (US) PG (UK)

SYNOPSIS

  The Golden Compass is a fantasy film that involves our story taking place in a different dimension not much different than our own. Except in this dimension people have animal companions simply known as demons. Now they are not demons in the sense that we think of them as evil beings from hell. However for some odd reason known to the author of the books, he decided to use the analogy to describe the animals in this film as so. When a demon is killed or hurt the human they are bound to feels it, and vis-versa.  However in this world much like our own there are wars waged every day and the powers that be have their secrets that they keep from the general public.

   In this story a scientist named Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) discovers a dust that can lead to parallel universes, however The Magisterium, the controlling party of the lands and their leader Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman) will do anything to stop the use of dust in the lands as they fear they will lose their grip on the creatures and people of the world. They begin to kidnap children and bring them to the north pole where they do terrible experiments on them. However there is a prophecy in which one golden compass exists and only one chosen person can use it to see the past, present and future.  A young girl, the niece of Lord Asriel named Lyra is that person, and it is up to her to help restore balance to word and bring peace once more.

VIOLENCE/GRAPHIC CONTENT/language

   Violence

  There is a lot of fighting going on in the film between both human beings and animated characters.  There is also use of guns, bow and arrow and other devices used to kill or injury some of the characters in this film. There are plenty of scenes where people die at the hand of many weapons as well. Towards the end of the film there are big epic battles in which many people die on both ends. There is even a scene where a group of kidnapped children face a line of evil soldiers who aim their guns at them.

   Graphic Content

  There are a lot of things in this film that parents might deem as inappropriate for their children to see. Nichole Kidman's character of Marisa Coulter does wear some revealing and sexy looking attire. She is also a very violent character and does slap and hit some of the children in the film as well as her spiritual demon animal monkey that follows her around. The monkey also abuses and beats the other animals that are bound to their human counterparts. In the film when the human character animal counterpart is attacked or hurt, the human also feels the pain. 

   There is some use of alcoholic beverages in the film, but not much. There is a scene in the beginning where a big bottle of what appears to be whiskey is laced with some kind of poison, however the characters fate is prevented when he goes for a drink. The other scene involves the Iorek Byrnison the polar bear drunk off his rocker when he first meets Lyra.

   There are a few scenes in the film that do get a bit graphic that involves lorek Byrnison biting the head off a man, and also involves him in a fierce battle with the king of the polar bears that ends in a bloody off screen battle. I don't want to spoil what happens but most of it takes place off screen. Still the notion is there as you know what the fate of the characters are, even if it's not shown on screen.

   Language

  There is some swearing in the film, but nothing crazy, pretty much God's name is used in some kind of vein one or two times in the film, and you have your basic children name calling, but nothing to over the top.

OVERALL VIEWS

  The Golden Compass is a film that has a lot of fantasy elements combined with folklore like characters such as witches, shape shifters, Egyptians and even talking polar bears. The film has some decent moments but one complaint I have is that the story is more for fans of the book or for teenagers or adults as the story is way to detailed and complicated for the average child to understand, not to mention they will get bored with the film really quickly as it is more story driven than action driven. I for one enjoyed the depth of the story and the characters.  But most children need adventure and while The Golden Compass does have it's adventured filled moments they are nothing so over the top and awesome that you'll feel a sense of awe.

   The movie is full of many wonderful and well known faces such as Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott, Jim Carter, Christopher Lee, Tom Courtenay, Derek Jacobi and the voices of Sir Ian McKellen, Kathy Bates, and Kristin Scott Thomas. The acting ffor the most part is pretty good and the set design and costumes are very impressive. The visual effects could of been better, but they did the job as far as getting the story across, though I did feel that in some scenes they looked a bit unrealistic.

   Overall, The Golden Compass is a decent fantasy film that might interest some younger teenagers and fans of the books. The movie does have an abrupt ending much similar to the first Lord of the Rings film as the series of books are part of a trilogy. Being that the movie did not do well in the American box office it's not known just yet if New Line Cinema will green light a sequel. I'm willing to bank that they are waiting to see how well it does on DVD before making that decision. The film did great overseas, but I think the release date and lack of marketing as one person put it, didn't help this film become a box office hit like other fantasy films like Narnia and  Lord of the Rings have. It's a decent movie, but it's not for everyone.

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