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The Golden Compass - Movie Review.

Ann This article was written by Ann on December 11, 2007 -

Warning: This review contains some spoilers.

The Golden Compass is the magical alethiometer that reveals the truth to any question. Only a very special, destined person can read this compass and that happens to be Lyra, the protagonist in this story. Girlz can draw inspiration from Lyra as the young wannabe who actually achieves by exerting her will.

Lyra is a 12 year old orphan who lives in a parallel world. This mysterious, magical world has humans whose souls reside outside their bodies, in the form of animals called the daemon species. Lyra lives with her uncle, Lord Asriel, at the college where he teaches.

Lord Asriel has discovered the existence of magical dust that forms a teleport to travel into other worlds. He wants to go into an exploration to investigate this source of dust. The dust can liberate people and empower them. However, the majesterium in charge of all governance wants to destroy dust and anything that will give people the chance to have liberty and freedom of will. Lord Asriel petitions for funds to make his North Pole exploration and leaves immediately after this. Before he departs, he presents Lyra with the sole remaining copy of The Golden Compass and tells her not to reveal this to anyone.

As soon as he leaves Lyra, the evil Mrs. Coulter comes into her life and schemes to win her confidence and trust. She succeeds in persuading Lyra to leave the college and travel with her. Initially she succeeds to manipulate Lyra. Slowly, Lyra rebels against her authority and runs away.

The audience learns that the ruling majesterium has secretly employed Mrs. Coulter to prevent and hinder the discovery of dust. Mrs. Coulter intends to kidnap Lyra and hold her for ransom as she follows in pursuit of Lord Asriel. She intends to use Lyra as a bargaining tool with Lord Asriel.

The authorities want a subservient population. They run a lab at a secret location to surgery sever the tie between the child and the daemon/soul because they desire a generation of followers to show blind devotion to their authority.

The evil powers are on the heels of Lyra. They capture her momentarily but she is saved in the nick of time by a band of gypsies. These social outcasts are deemed as misfits in society because they rebel against the authorities. They tell Lyra of her noble birthright and promise to watch and help her using all their powers.

The plot so far is nothing fantastic as it follows the usual storyline of a protagonist being plucked from the midst of her narrow world and is crowned the instant savior of the future. There is the usual band of secret service who show up punctually to save lives.

Girlz have the handsome Lord Asriel as eye candy while the guys have the timeless beauty, Nicole Kidman, to fantasize over. Lyra and her male friends are intended to capture the hearts of children and glue them to the screen.

William Donohue, chief of “Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights”, claimed that the film was anti-Catholic. However, after watching it, I think that the religious controversy is grossly over-rated. The daemons were referred to as animals that contained the souls of humans. All the rest of the fantasy belongs to the fiction genre. Children who cannot grasp reality and fiction need some gentle guidance. We can’t eliminate and protect children from controversial themes but we can educate them to discern for themselves.

Golden Compass cast:

Actors

Nicole Kidman as Marisa Coulter

Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra Belacqua

Eva Green as Serafina Pekkala

Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel/ Lord Asriel

Derek Jacobi as Magisterial Emmissary

Ben Walker (II) as Roger

Charlie Rowe as Billy Costa

Sam Elliott as Lee Scoresby

Tom Courtenay as Farder Coram

Simon McBurney as Fra Pavel