Plot[]
| Spoiler Warning: The following contains important plot details of the entire film. |
In an alternate Earth, a powerful church called the Magisterium strictly controls the populace's beliefs and teachings. In this world, every person's inner spirit partially exists outside the body, manifesting itself as an animal companion called a dæmon. The dæmon communicates with the person and must remain in close physical proximity. Witches, however, have bird-shape dæmons that are able to travel long distances from their bodies.
Lyra Belacqua, whose dæmon is named Pantalaimon or "Pan", is an orphan being raised at Jordan College in Oxford. Her uncle, Lord Asriel, a noted explorer and scholar, has been absent seeking the elusive Dust, a cosmic particle that the Magisterium forbids to be mentioned. When Asriel returns to Oxford, Lyra saves his life after seeing a visiting Magisterium agent spike his wine with an unidentified poison. Asriel later gives a presentation to other scholars regarding his discovery that Dust existing in the North Pole links infinite worlds. Asriel receives a grant for another expedition. If his theory is proven, it could severely undermine the Magisterium's control.
Lyra meets the wealthy Mrs. Coulter, a "friend" of the college. She invites Lyra to stay with her in retrofuturistic London. Before Lyra leaves, the Master of the college entrusts her with her uncle's alethiometer, a compass-like artefact that reveals the truth (the titular golden compass). Few individuals can decipher its symbols. The Magisterium has seized or destroyed all other alethiometers, and Lyra is warned to keep hers a secret.
Lyra notices the alethiometer continuously points to a symbol of a lady, a lightning bolt, and an infant, though she is unable to comprehend its meaning. Soon, Mrs. Coulter's congenial manner changes and shows she is aligned to the Magisterium and its mandate. When Lyra casually mentions Dust, Mrs. Coulter sternly warns her to never mention it again.
Kidnappers called Gobblers have been snatching poor, orphaned, and Gyptian children, including Lyra's friends Roger, an Oxford servant boy, and Billy Costa, a young Gyptian. Lyra later discovers that Mrs. Coulter is head of the General Oblation Board and realizes they are the "Gobblers."
When Mrs. Coulter's dæmon attempts to steal the alethiometer, Lyra and Pan escape with it into the streets. Gobblers pursue her, but she is saved by Ma Costa, Billy's mother. Lyra is taken to the Gyptian king, John Faa, whose ship is heading north to search for the captured children. A wise Gyptian elder named Farder Coram is able to decipher the compass.
After consulting with Magisterium agent Fra Pavel, Mrs. Coulter sends two mechanical spy-flies after Lyra. One is batted away but the other is caught and sealed in a can by Farder Coram, who says the spy-fly has a stinger filled with a sleeping poison. Meanwhile, Lord Asriel has reached Svalbard, the kingdom of the Ice Bears, but he is captured by Samoyed tribesmen hired by Mrs. Coulter.
The witch queen, Serafina Pekkala, tells Lyra the missing children are in an experimental station called Bolvangar. At a northern port, Lyra is befriended by a Texan aeronaut named Lee Scoresby. He advises her to hire him and his friend Iorek Byrnison, an armoured bear that Lee has come to rescue. Once a prince of the armoured bears, Iorek is now exiled in shame, the local townspeople having tricked him out of his armour. Lyra uses the alethiometer to locate Iorek's armour. After recovering it, Iorek joins the Gyptian trek northward, along with Scoresby.
Lyra, astride Iorek, goes to an abandoned building the alethiometer pointed her toward. There, Lyra finds Billy Costa, who has been surgically separated from his dæmon. The Gobblers are experimenting on the kidnapped children using a procedure called "intercision." Lyra reunites Billy with Ma Costa, but the group is attacked by Samoyeds, who capture Lyra. Iorek and Lee follow her in Lee's airship. Lyra is taken to the bear king Ragnar Sturlusson. Knowing Iorek will be outnumbered, Lyra tricks Ragnar into fighting Iorek one-on-one. Ragnar, who usurped Iorek's throne, initially appears to be winning; Iorek feigns weakness and kills Ragnar, avenging his father and regaining his kingdom.
Iorek carries Lyra to Bolvangar, but only Lyra crosses a narrow ice bridge before it collapses. Upon reaching the station, Lyra reunited with Roger. Lyra overhears Mrs. Coulter telling the station scientists that Asriel escaped and has set up a laboratory. Magisterium soldiers are going there to arrest him for heresy. Lyra discovers scientists are experimenting to sever a child from their dæmon. Caught spying, Lyra and Pan are thrown into the intercision chamber but Mrs. Coulter rescues her.
Mrs. Coulter tells Lyra that the Magisterium believe intercision protects children from Dust's corrupting influence. She reveals she is Lyra's mother but was forced to give her up; Lyra realises that Asriel is her father. When Mrs Coulter wants the alethiometer, Lyra instead gives her the can containing the spy-fly. The fly stings Mrs Coulter, rendering her unconscious. Lyra destroys the machine, setting off a series of explosions.
Outside, the fleeing children are attacked by Tartar mercenaries and their wolf dæmons. Iorek, Scoresby, the Gyptians, and flying witches led by Serafina join the battle. The Tartars are defeated and the children rescued. Lyra, Roger, Iorek, Lee, and Serafina fly north to search for Asriel. Confirming Serafina's prophecy of an upcoming war with Lyra at its centre, Lyra is determined to fight the Magisterium, who plot to control all the other worlds in the universe.
Plot holes[]
Numerous scenes from the novel did not feature in the film or were markedly changed. On December 7, 2007, New York magazine reviewed draft scripts from both Stoppard and Weitz; both were significantly longer than the final version, and Weitz's draft (which, unlike Stoppard's, did not feature significant additions to the source material) was pronounced the best of the three. The magazine concluded that instead of a "likely three hours of running time" that included such scenes as Mrs Coulter's London party and Lyra's meeting with a witch representative, the studio had opted for a "failed" length of under 2 hours in order to maximise revenue.
Cast[]
|-
! Actor
! Role
|-
| Nicole Kidman || Mrs. Coulter
| Daniel Craig ||Lord Asriel
| Dakota Blue Richards || Lyra
| Ben Walker ||Roger
| Freddie Highmore ||Pantalaimon (voice)
| Ian McKellen ||Iorek Byrnison (voice)
| Eva Green ||Serafina Pekkala
| Jim Carter ||John Faa
| Tom Courtenay ||Farder Coram
| Ian McShane ||Ragnar Sturlusson (voice)
| Christopher Lee ||First High Councilor
| Kristin Scott Thomas ||Stelmaria (voice)
| Edward de Souza ||Second High Councilor
| Kathy Bates ||Hester (voice)
| Simon McBurney ||Fra Pavel
| Jack Shepherd ||Master
| Magda Szubanski ||Mrs. Lonsdale
| Derek Jacobi ||Magisterial Emissary
| Clare Higgins ||Ma Costa
| Charlie Rowe ||Billy Costa
| Michael Antoniou ||Kerim Costa
| Mark Mottram ||Jaxer Costa
| Paul Antony-Barber ||Bolvangar Doctor
| Jason Watkins ||Bolvangar Official
| Jody Halse ||Bolvangar Orderly
| Hattie Morahan ||Sister Clara
| John Bett ||Thorold
| John Franklyn-Robbins ||Librarian
Production[]
On February 11, 2002, following the success of New Line's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the studio bought the rights to Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. In July 2003, Tom Stoppard was commissioned to write the screenplay. Directors Brett Ratner and Sam Mendes expressed interest in the film, but a year later, Chris Weitz was hired to direct after approaching the studio with an unsolicited 40-page treatment. The studio rejected the script, asking Weitz to start from scratch. Since Weitz was an admirer of Stoppard's work, he decided not to read the adaptation in case he "subconsciously poached things from him." After delivering his script, Weitz cited Barry Lyndon and Star Wars as stylistic influences on the film. In 2004, Weitz was invited by The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson onto the set of King Kong (2005) in order to gather information on directing a big-budget film, and to receive advice on dealing with New Line Cinema, for whom Jackson had worked on Lord of the Rings. After a subsequent interview in which Weitz said the novel's attacks on organised religion would have to be softened, he was criticised by some fans, and on December 15, 2004, Weitz announced his resignation as director of the trilogy, citing the enormous technical challenges of the epic. He later indicated that he had envisioned the possibility of being denounced by both the book's fans and its detractors, as well as a studio hoping for another Lord of the Rings.
On August 9, 2005, it was announced that British director Anand Tucker would take over from Weitz. Tucker felt the film would thematically be about Lyra "looking for a family", and Pullman agreed: "He has plenty of very good ideas, and he isn't daunted by the technical challenges. But the best thing from the point of view of all who care about the story is his awareness that it isn't about computer graphics; it isn't about fantastic adventures in amazing-looking worlds; it's about Lyra." Tucker resigned on May 8, 2006, citing creative disagreements with New Line, and Weitz returned to direct.[6] Weitz said "I'm both the first and third director on the film … but I did a lot of growing in the interim."
According to producer Deborah Forte, Tucker wanted to make a smaller, less exciting film than New Line wanted. New Line production president Toby Emmerich said of Weitz's return: "I think Chris realised that if he didn't come back in and step up, maybe the movie wasn't going to get made … We really didn't have a Plan B at that point." Weitz was attracted back to the project after receiving a letter from Pullman asking him to reconsider. Since his departure, blueprints, production design and visual effects strategies had been put into position, and while Weitz admitted that his fears did not vanish, the project suddenly seemed feasible for the director.
Filming[]
Filming began at Shepperton Studios on September 4, 2006, with additional sequences shot in Switzerland and Norway. Filming also took place at the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich, Chiswick House in London, and in Radcliffe Square, Christ Church, Oxford, Exeter College, Oxford, The Queen's College, Oxford, The Historic Dockyard Chatham[ and Hedsor House in Buckinghamshire
Release[]
The film premiered in London on November 27, 2007, and was released on December 5, 2007, in British cinemas by Entertainment Film Distributors and released on December 7, 2007, in American cinemas by New Line Cinema.
Home media[]
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray formats in the United Kingdom on April 28, 2008, and the United States on April 29, 2008. The movie is closed-captioned by the National Captioning Institute on its first home video release. The extra material on the single-disc DVD consists of previews of upcoming New Line Cinema films. The two-disc edition includes a commentary from writer/director Chris Weitz, eleven "making-of" featurettes, a photo gallery, and theatrical and teaser trailers. The Blu-ray Disc features the same extras from the two-disc DVD edition.
Shortly before the film's release, Weitz suggested that an extended cut of the film could be released on DVD, saying "I'd really love to do a fuller cut of the film"; he further speculated that such a version "could probably end up at two-and-a-half hours."This proposed cut would presumably not include the original ending: MTV reported in December 2007 that Weitz hoped to include that material at the beginning of a possible The Subtle Knife adaptation, and that a Compass Director's Cut might feature "a moment" of it as a "teaser." Cast members Craig and Green have echoed this hope for such a DVD cut; so far, however, no extended version has been released, as of 2014.
On June 9, 2020. Weitz revealed on Twitter that it would take $17 million for him to complete VFX for his directors cut making him think there is no financial incentive for them to finish it and release it .
Critical response[]
Reviews of The Golden Compass were mixed.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 42%, based on 197 reviews, with an average score of 5.63/10. The critical consensus reads: "Without the bite or the controversy of the source material, The Golden Compass is reduced to impressive visuals overcompensating for lax storytelling."
At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 51, based on 33 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Manohla Dargis of The New York Times said that the film "crams so many events, characters, ... twists and turns, sumptuously appointed rooms and ethereally strange vistas ... that [it] risks losing you in the whirl" and that while The Golden Compass is "an honorable work," it is "hampered by its fealty to the book and its madly rushed pace."
James Berardinelli of ReelReviews gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4, calling it "adequate, but not inspired" and criticising the first hour for its rushed pace and sketchily-developed characters.
James Christopher of The Times of London was disappointed, praising the "marvellous" special effects and casting, but saying that the "books weave a magic the film simply cannot match" and citing a "lack of genuine drama.
Time rated it a "A-" and called it a "good, if familiar fantasy," saying "The find is Dakota Blue Richards ... who's both grounded and magical."
Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian rated it 4 stars out of 5, praising Nicole Kidman's casting and saying it had "no other challengers as [2007's] big Christmas movie."
Leonard Maltin gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, and said that "Richards is persuasive" and that it "does a good job of introducing us to an unfamiliar world."
Critic Roger Ebert awarded the film 4 out of 4 stars and called it "a darker, deeper fantasy epic than the "Rings" trilogy (The Lord of the Rings), The Chronicles of Narnia or the Potter films," saying that it "creates villains that are more complex and poses more intriguing questions. As a visual experience, it is superb. As an escapist fantasy, it is challenging ... I think [it] is a wonderfully good-looking movie, with exciting passages and a captivating heroine.
Accolades[]
The Golden Compass won the 2008 Oscar for Best Visual Effects and the BAFTA Film Award for Special Visual Effects[76] notably beating what many considered to be the front-runner, Michael Bay's Transformers, which had swept the VES awards prior.[77] It was also nominated for 2 Critics' Choice Awards in 2007 ("Best Family Film," and "Best Young Actress" for Dakota Blue Richards[78]), 5 Satellite Awards and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. The Golden Compass was nominated for the National Movie Award for Best Family Film, but lost to Disney/Pixar's WALL-E.
Trivia[]
Video game[]
The video game for this film was released in November 2007 in Europe and December 2007 in North America and Australia for the PC, Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS and the Xbox 360. It was developed by Shiny Entertainment and published by Sega.
External link[]
Videos[]
Appearances in other media[]
Cancelled sequels: At the time of The Golden Compass's theatrical release, Chris Weitz pledged to "protect [the] integrity" of the prospective sequels by being "much less compromising" in the book-to-film adaptation process.[25] New Line Cinema commissioned Hossein Amini to write a screenplay based on the second book in the trilogy, The Subtle Knife, potentially for release in May 2010, with the third book of the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass, to follow. However, New Line president Toby Emmerich stressed that production of the second and third films was dependent on the financial success of The Golden Compass.[81] When The Golden Compass did not meet expectations at the United States box-office, the likelihood of a sequel was downplayed by New Line.
Television reboot: In 2019, 12 years after the film's disappointment that caused the two sequels to be scrapped, a television adaptation of His Dark Materials was made. It is produced by Bad Wolf and New Line Production and was shown on both BBC One and HBO. It received a much better reception than the film adaptation.