Fri 7 Dec 2007
I shall call it: The Olden Comp-Ass.
I tried to love it, I truly tried. And thus I adored Dakota Blue Richards, a charming gal with an unfortunate stripper’s name, and I thought the look of the movie and the designs were spectacular. Also, isn’t Alexandre Desplat the best composer out there right now?
But The Golden Compass was disastrous. I thought Narnia was mediocre but the Prince Caspian trailer that was tacked on to the beginning of the movie was the best thing in it. At least it had some groove to it.
The essence of a fantasy movie is to create an unbelievable world and then populate it with believable characters. They can be talking bears, but their mentality should be human, and their actions identifiable. And from the moment Nicole Kidman (doing for twice what Glenn Close could have done for half) persuades the girl to join her, the movie lost all credibility.
Worst of all: this isn’t even proper eye-candy. The Golden Compass is a snooze inducer. If I hadn’t known it’s based on much loved novels I would’ve thought this is a mega-buck exploitation flick, mixing it up with the worst from Pirates of the Caribbean, Narnia, Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings.
There was one tiny glimmer of hope at what seemed to be the 3/4 mark: after a climactic battle sequence (so-so) there was a sense of urgency to the plot, and I thought “here we go, the last act will be worthwhile”. But no last act: the kid gets on the air-ship, vows to rescue James Bond from who-knows-what and the movie fades out. Oh, you want a franchise? Well, I pray this one bombs bigger than Pearl Harbor and that a sequel will never be made, this might teach Hollywood a lesson that before you plan parts 2 & 3 try and get the first one right. This movie has no heart.
December 13th, 2007 at 4:13 am
i pretty much completely agree. i have been reading the books since i was 8 (the year the golden compass was published) and actually looked forward to this movie. needless to say, i was crushed and i hope they do not make the remaining two books. i dont know if youve read the books, but you were right on with the (failed) climax - the movie actually left out the last three chapters for reasons i cant begin to fathom. i might have been able to forgive everything else if the ending had come through. but to leave lyra on the balloon and in her own universe (and ** alive, without lyra betraying him) was devastating. there was literally no point to the entire story without those last three chapters. is there any place to mail complaints???