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Nuno Vasco Madeira Vilão

Review - The Golden Compass

For those of you who haven´t seen The Golden Compass , I shall start this review by saying that it is not a children´s film, even though one may be led to believe that it is because of the talking animals or daemons and the not so cute and cuddly polar bears. The action of the film takes place in a universe much like our own , but in this world , humans are accompanied by the human manifestation of their souls. When they´re still little , their daemons can shapeshift and become every sort of animal they wish , but when one gets older , the daemon acquires his permanent shape. And it is in this universe where we find the heroine of the film , Lyra , who is out on a quest to save her best friend Roger and other kids from the clutches of the evil Gobblers . Along the way Lyra crosses paths with a wide of characters , from a mysterious woman called Mrs. Coulter who she meets while still at Jordan College , to an armoured polar bear called Iorek. Lyra soon discovers that her task is even bigger than she had first expected since not only does she have to save the children of the gyptian families who help her in her quest , but she also has to help her uncle Asriel escape from the evil Magisterium , an organization bent on forcing humans to see things the way they want them to be seen , leaving no space for free will or free thinking.

This film is based on a popular trilogy of books written by author Phillip Pullman . While in the books , name of the organization that runs Lyra´s world is The Church , in the film producers have decided to call it The Magisterium. The film has come under attack by some Christian and Catholic groups in the United States because the groups´s leaders say that it promotes atheism amongst other things that the Catholic church still fears in the XXIst century. Having cost 180 million dollars to make , The Golden Compass is a visual spectacle from start to finish and in that relies its strength , but also its biggest flaw , for sometimes one just totally forgets about the characters and focuses on everything computer generated , especially a particularly gruesome bear fight. The performances are good , especially those of Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra and Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulters , who supposedly is the film´s main villain. Daniel Craig and Eva Green are also good , but perhaps their characters deserved a bit more screen time in order to help the viewer understand the reasons that drive them . One can say that the fact that the film is smaller than previous first chapters of epic fantasies such as The Lord Of The Rings is a good thing , but in a way I think that the producers should not have cut some scenes but the action pace is so fast that one sometimes find keeping up with the story a bit difficult .

Overall I have to say tha The Golden Compass is a good movie , perhaps not as deep as the books but still a considerably thought provoking fantasy epic.

The Golden Compass : 0 to 10 :6