Before I even started to watch The Golden Compass I was nervous. The Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman are among the best books I have read, and only a handful of novels come close to the imagery described in the book. Since film conversions from books are never as good as you expect (think Jurassic Park, Sphere, James Bond, and of course Harry Potter) you could understand my apprehension. Not only that, but from what I had heard beforehand, changes to the script ranged from slight to drastic in some places, not to mention the fact that the title has been changed - the book which the film was based on is called ‘Northern Lights’. Pullman was fine with these changes in script apparently, saying that “every film has to make changes to the story that the original book tells - not to change the outcome, but to make it fit the dimensions and the medium of film” which is OK in theory, but it’s a sure fire way to annoy those (like me) who have already read the book, and know what the outcome will be.
Not unlike the Harry Potter films, huge chunks of plot are missed out and you will never have the same connection with the characters. You can’t imagine the settings the same if you see it on a screen in front of you, and the characters are never what you expect. Still, this is obvious stuff so onto the actual film.
The casting of Nicole Kidman was spot on as the devious and spiteful Mrs Coulter, and she plays the villain part very, very well indeed. I think Mrs Coulter is the only character who looks, sounds, and acts almost exactly as I had imagined. Superb casting. Daniel Craig plays Lord Asriel, although he only plays a bit part, at least in this film - if he does any sequels (as predicted) he will play a much more important role. The lead character Lyra Belacqua is played by Dakota Blue Richards and was surely a daunting task for such a young and inexperienced person. Making your début in such a highly publicised and well known book adaptation was never going to be easy, especially at only 14, and having never acted before - ever. With this in mind, Richards does a decent job. The language differs slightly from the book, probably another minute script change a lot of people won’t notice. In the book, Lyra’s accent is more similar to Eliza Doolittle’s cockney accent from Pygmalian, but there’s only the occasional word in the film. The acting is generally very good. The cast stick well to their characters, and the voices for the Daemons are equally impressive (more on them in a moment) I thought Iorek the armoured bear (voiced by Sir Ian McKellen) was done superbly well, and the animation was top notch. At times his voice didn’t really match though, and it wasn’t what I had imagined. There was not a deep, growling or aggressive tone at any time, even in the fight and action scenes.
The Daemon’s are the key to the book, and thankfully the director realised this and did a great job in capturing the way a Daemon and character react to each other, and as it was all done using CG effects, credit goes to the actors and actresses as well. The bonding sense that a human and Daemon comes across very well, although the whole taboo of touching someone else’s daemon is not mentioned. The relationship between Lyra and Roger is also not explored very well. You don’t get the impression that she particularly cares about him, but is just bored at school so she decides to go after him. Finally on the subject of Daemons, Mrs Coulter’s Daemon the golden monkey was not as scary as he was supposed to be, even in the books I was creeped out, but the film does a poor job of conveying the terror and horror that the monkey conveys.
The diluting of religious elements from the book was not really a surprise given it is essentially a children’s film. The film shows the Magesterium as a general religious organisation with a sinister side to it. The book goes into much more detail, and Lyra has the meaning of Original Sin and what is essentially Christianity taught to her, and why it has a sinister side to it. It’s a huge difference, and you can see why the Catholic Church was up in arms about the book. Despite the morality of using Catholicism in the book, it is an essential part to the story (more so in the final book/film) so it will be interesting to see how the script is changed for this.
The ending to the film was so sudden I was shocked. It just sort of, stops. No conclusion to what happens to the other characters, although it does set up the sequel nicely it has to be said. To get the most of the film(and inevitable future releases) you simply MUST read the books. This goes for Harry Potter, and all the other book to film releases - no matter how good the special effects, sound, music, cast, settings etc, you will never get the same definition to a persons character, you cannot form your own vision of what someone or some place looks like, and you will never get the whole story crammed into an hour and a half.
The Golden Compass while a decent enough film, rushes through most of the story and it’s hard to follow at times. However, the acting and special effects are generally very good, and so is the sense of magic and wonder. It’s not the northern Lights however, and it never will be, but it is worth a watch if you’re into your fantasy films, and I’m sure that kid’s will love it, so it is a good family film to watch.
Overall - 6.5/10
