Based on author Philip Pullman's award winning novel "His Dark Materials," "The Golden Compass" is a fantasy adventure, set in an alternative world, where people's souls manifest themselves as animals.
At the center of the story is Lyra, 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 her world.
The hullabaloo surrounding any alleged "anti-religious" theme to Pullman’s 1995 trilogy takes a distant backseat to screenwriter/director Chris Weitz’s spotty filmic adaptation that never locates a through line to the convoluted narrative.
Newcomer Dakota Blue Richards plays Lyra Belacqua, a 12-year-old orphan raised at an elite English college under the supervision of her uncle Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), a scientist and explorer intent on traveling to the Arctic Circle to examine golden dust that connects mystical worlds.
Coincidentally, a Nazi-like group called the Magisterium has been kidnapping children and spiriting them off to a compound in the Arctic to separate the youth from their daemons (souls) which manifest as alter ego pets that can change species, at least until the child’s personality becomes fixed.
Lyra is inexplicably and secretly given the last Golden Compass, a device that ascertains the underlying answer to any question asked of it.
With no idea of how to use the compass Lyra is an easy mark for one slinky and cunning Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman) to abscond with the rebellious girl and her daemon (voiced by Freddie Highmore) in order to steal the compass for the Magisterium’s use.
Rated PG-13. 114 mins.
