The Golden Compass (2007)

 Friggin awesome
I really hope they make the sequels to this. Fantastic story and much more interesting than the typical fantasy garbage hollywood puts out. May 15, 2008

 Don't bother
I looked forward to seeing this movie after reading the book. What a disappointment! They so altered the story line and sequence in which events happened that I had to turn it off after about an hour of watching. The book was good, the movie terrible. May 14, 2008

 His Wasted Materials
The book is brilliantly written and much more complex than the movie. Of course a 400 page novel can never really condense into a 2 hour movie successfully but in the case of this film, they should have hired a real writer and a non-American director to do it correctly. The "writer/director" responsible for this mess should never be allowed near a film set again. He was just not intelligent enough to comprehend and distill the material, so instead of an interesting and new work of art we get a lightening-paced mess of superficial action highlights. This is not so much a film as it is a poorly constructed (albeit very long) trailer for a much more complicated and rich story. It isn't that scenes have been removed or changed or seem missing somehow (which is expected in any book-to-film adaptation) but whole layers of thematic nuance and subtext and nowhere to be found. Shakespeare for kindergarteners. It is as if the producers and "writer/director" found a diamond and were not smart enough to even recognize what they held in their hands, passing it back and forth until all they had were a few grains of shiny sand that no longer held value or even together. Are there no intelligent people left in Hollywood? Surely someone must have seen the script or an early cut of the "film" and noticed that something was terribly wrong. Did no one even talk to the author (or even Peter Hedges) before the film was in production? What an absolute WASTE of brilliant source material! May 14, 2008

 Armored Bears!
This one would have gotten two stars, except for Armored Bears.

Disclaimer: I have not read the book, and I am unlikely to, after seeing the movie. I am glad I waited for the DVD release.

The characters were two-dimensional, and we never really get a feeling of WHY they do what they do.

The evil is vaguely defined, but not really understood.

The bit about a person's soul accompanying that person as an animal sidekick was intriguing, but wasn't exploited, although it was hinted that it was a central issue in the conflict, we were never told why.


All in all, the movie seemed to be a collection of favorite scenes from someone's favorite book, but lacked the fabric which connected those scenes into a comprehensible whole.

But the Armored Bears were pretty cool!
May 13, 2008

 A work of Art and well worth our precious time.
Here we have tangible evidence we should not let any special interest dictate what we should or should not watch. This film is a delight for children and adults as well. I shudder to think there is someone of voting age out there who would find anything offensive with this film as it is overflowing with heartwarming attributes. From the TreeHouse. May 12, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...