The Golden Compass 2007 Directed by: Chris Weitz Cast: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards, Ben Walker, Eva Green

Written by: Hollywood IQ December 13, 2007

A young girl Lyra Balacqua (Richards), and her shape shifting animal daemon, Pan (Highmore), live in a parallel universe where "Dust" is forbidden and the council known as the Magisterium, rules.  Lyras Uncle Asriel (Craig) hears of a cloud of this dust and ventures north to check it out. 

Meanwhile children are being abducted by a group they call Gobblers.  Ms. Coulter(Kidman) is a friend of the Magisteriums, who is all to interested in the gifted, Lyra.  When Ms. Coulter takes Lyra, north, she discovers Ms. Coulter is not as cool as she thought, so she books it out of there.  She is then rescued by a loner aero naught, Scoresby (Elliot), and Polar Bear outcast, Iorek Byrnison (McKellen).  Witches (Green) try to help them, and foul Samoyed clans try to stop them, as Lyra unlocks the secrets of herself and the dust, all the while fulfilling her destiny.  Whew!
A synopsis that long would probably boast a movie with at least a 2 1/2 hr running time, but it doesn't.  They shoved every last shred of info into that small 113 minutes.  There are rushed stories, character explanations, and lots of beating up on defenseless daemons in lieu of actually hurting children, who are affected by inflictions on the daemon.  The Bears, are the most intriguing out of the entire cast.  Although there was little in the way of understanding this "Dust", it has a cute premise with an underlying bout of caution against the Magisterium, who represents in non-fiction form, Church.  The author as you may know by now is atheist, but the movie is watered down enough, for your kiddies to not get it.  Although the scene where the bears fight may be hard to watch, due to graphic death.  So overall an unremarkable movie, but still, the magical world and imagination of the story, are worth checking out.  I will most likely see the other two movies of this projected trilogy.  The daemons are awesome, and I would love it, if that were really possible.  What would your daemon be?  Mine, would be a Tiger, or a butterfly, depends on my mood.

1/2