The Golden Compass

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Eva Green, et al.

Product Description

Based on author Philip Pullman's bestselling and award-winning novel, The Golden Compass tells the first story in Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The Golden Compass is an exciting fantasy adventure, set in an alternative world where people's souls manifest themselves as animals, talking bears fight wars, and Gyptians and witches co-exist. At the center of the story is Lyra (played by newcomer Dakota Blue Richards), a 12-year-old girl who starts out trying to rescue a friend who's been kidnapped by a mysterious organization known as the Gobblers - and winds up on an epic quest to save not only her world, but ours as well.

• Format: Blu-ray
• Language: English
• UPC: 794043120442
• Release Date: April 2008
• Rating: PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
• Publisher: New Line Home Video
• Director: Chris Weitz
• Starring: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Dakota Blue Richards, Ian McShane (voice), Sam Elliott, Tom Courtenay, Adam Godley (voice), Nonso Anozie (voice), Clare Higgins
• Runtime: 1 hour, 53 minutes
• Number of Disks: 2
• Other Video Info: Multiple Formats; Dolby; DTS Surround Sound; NTSC; Subtitled; Widescreen; Blu-ray
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

The names were changed to protect the innocent.

Come to think of it, the whole story is about protecting the innocent. Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) was raised relatively unsupervised, which led to a wild childhood of mock wars and mischievousness. An excellent liar who saves her from many situations, she may someday find her assets are liabilities. A chance visit by her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), will change her life forever. Well, movies cannot be the book, and many times, for brevity, speeches are cut, and locations are rearranged (from a 400-page book to a 110-page script), but you must draw the line somewhere. Unfortunately, this is one of those times where they left the action in and changed the story from a multifaceted mystery to a black-and-white good guy vs. bad guy. We may as well have been watching Saturday afternoon cowboys with black and white hats. Some of the facets were skillfully woven into the non-verbal part of the film with the hope that you read the book and know what is happening. Still, the focus switched from a coming-of-age story to freeing the slaves and whatnot. And what is with introducing a bad guy from the next installment to an earlier scene at Jordan College that masks the turmoil of conciseness at the college? I do agree that the movie needed to stop short of the cliffhanger end of the book. Let us see what happens when Lyra brings her father what he needs. On the plus side, the costumes and props were excellent. The CGI did not overwhelm the story. Daemons knew their place. The music matched the scenes and did not overwhelm the dialog. They did a great job of choosing the actors. We can hope they will be around for “The Subtle Knife” (2009). Nicole Kidman made a perfect Mrs. Coulter, and the added scene where she slaps her monkey gives hope to become a more complex character. The voice of Iorek Byrnison (name changed) is Ian McKellen of “The Da Vinci Code” fame. Well, with any luck things may straighten out by the next installment. ----------------------------------------------------- The Blu-ray comes with a bonus disk that has more footage on it than the movie itself. Watching this dark material and re-watching the film may give more insight into the story.