Take The Golden Compass from the Dark Materials, put it on the silver screen and what could the resulting mix become but a veritable spectrum of cinematic magic. A world enchanted by armoured polar bears, flying witches, aeronauts, and dæmons steers an occasionally choppy course but keeps pointing towards the little girl at the heart of it all: the precocious orphan Lyra Belacqua, played by newcomer Dakota Blue Richards.
New Line Cinema's holiday undertaking is based upon English author Philip Pullman's acclaimed "His Dark Materials" trilogy, the first book of which, The Golden Compass, is poised to be this holiday's big screen fantasy flick. The film stars Nicole Kidman as the deliciously cold yet beautiful Mrs. Coulter and Daniel Craig as the arctic explorer Lord Asriel. The "Golden" cast is rounded out with Sam Elliot as a gun-toting hot air balloonist, Eva Green as a good witch, Ian McKellan voicing an armoured polar bear, and the young Freddie Highmore providing his voice for a character. The movie, directed by Chris Weitz, is at the center of a number of press events leading up to a Tuesday London premiere and a worldwide opening by December 7th. HisDarkMaterials.org visited the press events surrounding the upcoming premiere of The Golden Compass.
The movie begins by packing information about Lyra's parallel world into a high-energy street romp between Lyra and her comrades. Lyra lives in a world where all people are born with a dæmon, an animal-formed representation of a person's soul that has the ability to shift forms until adolescence. In Lyra's world there is a group called the Magisterium, an oppressive force that seeks to control Lyra's and other worlds. After her best friend gets kidnapped by the mysterious Gobblers, Lyra and her animal-formed dæmon set out on a journey North to save him.
Along the way, Lyra joins forces with water-faring Gyptians, a Texan hot air balloonist, and an armoured bear. The dæmons of Lyra's world stand out as fully CGI characters, with voice actors of their own, interacting with their human actor counterparts and the environment around them. Most endearing, Lyra's dæmon Pantalaimon has a special bond with Lyra, sticking his tongue out at her behind a pane of glass when the two disagree and leaping into her arms cat-formed when the two are sad.
This big-budget movie is packed with visual effects as ten different VFX wizards added their talent to making The Golden Compass, creating all of the film's CGI creatures, backgrounds, and creature effects. Feeding more talent into the production, Alexandre Desplat composes the soundtrack for the movie, featuring character themes, swelling emotional scores, and an underlying synergistic theory to his music in Lyra's world.
Lyra's journey takes her from an upscale college in England's Oxford on a northward trail with a group of Gyptians. Along the way she encounters Iorek, a giant armoured polar bear in exile whose honor she is destined to return to status. To return the fallen bear-king to his throne Lyra must trick the current bear-king into a fight, allowing Iorek to regain his lost title in an armoured bear versus armoured bear brawl of clawing, slashing CGI polar bears in combat: a fight ending in a dramatic yet modest match to the death.
The Golden Compass is at its best when characters and dæmons are interacting. The extent of the human-dæmon bond becomes apparent as Nicole Kidman's character the glamorous Mrs. Coulter slaps her own dæmon in anger, then apologetically turns toward the camera with a series of red finger streaks down her own cheek. The movie itself goes on to further develop the human-dæmon bond as the Gyptian group discovers the terrible secret that the kidnapped children are being severed from their dæmons as experiments: an unthinkable act to the spunky young heroine Lyra.
The movie does have some hang ups: there is a questioning whether people unfamiliar with The Golden Compass novel will be able to keep up with the furious pace set by the plot and whether the central mysterious substance Dust has enough exposure. Adult actors Sam Elliot, Eva Green, and Daniel Craig positively shined in their roles, each actor so thoroughly owning their character on screen, but unfortunately, not heavily featured. Happily appearing on screen for an abundantly beautiful time, actress Nicole Kidman shrugged off early reports of owning a flop and demonstrated all that is charm in her portrayal of Mrs. Coulter.
With a blockbuster budget higher than the Lord of the Rings trilogy, New Line Cinema is likely hoping for another huge hit to add to their collection of fantastical fantasy. Will New Line "Ring" another gold this season? Quick advice: if your idea of the holidays doesn't include polar bears and dæmons and a rescue adventure North, it's time to redirect your compass needle.
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