Bringing Phillip Pullmans “kids book” trilogy to the screen was never going to be an easy task. The concepts in the Northern Lights are pretty weighty to begin with, so transferring them to the screen successfully was going to take a lot of careful handling. So it’s with great regret that I have to report The Golden Compass doesn’t quite manage it.
The story, for those of you not in the know, features Lyra Belacqua, a head strong orphan raised by the Masters at Jordan college (think Oxford with less of the forced buggery) and her adventures to the far north to free some kidnapped children. This is all happening in a parallel universe to our own, where the Church has absolute power. Intrepid explorer and possible heretic, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), discovers a possible way to travel between these universes and sets off, backed with Jordan’s money, to put his theory to the test. The Church sees this as a possible threat and so tries it’s best to put a spanner in the works. Throw in some sailing gypsies, witches, child abuse, armoured bears, the death of God and that’s really all there is to it.
Now, if you find that hard to understand, you’ve probably not read the books. A little background here could be in order. I loved the books, read them more than once in fact. No matter how great the Harry Potter books are, The Dark Materials trilogy is head and shoulders above them in every way. The subject matter is far deeper, the characters are better drawn, the story is more complex and the general writing ability is leagues above JK Rowling’s. That’s not to say that the Potter books aren’t good, they are, in fact they’re great, they just can’t hold a candle to the Pullman ones.
That being said, the Potter books have made the transfer from page to screen a lot more successfully than The Golden Compass.
Let’s have a look at the good points and bad. The good points, of which there are many, include Mrs Coultar, Lyra herself, the beautifully realised world they inhabit, armour bears, Lee Scoresby, daemons and many more. The bad we’ll get to later.
Nicole Kidman is perfect as Mrs Coultar, in equal measure stunningly beautiful, fierce and terrifying, yet occasionally vulnerable. She is exactly as you’d imagined the character to be. Lyra, played by Dakota Blue Richards, is perfectly cast. She has a mischievous air of good nature running though her, able to convey the subtle traits of her character with a simple look or nuance. Although not on screen for a huge amount of time, Daniel Craig’s Lord Asriel is straight off the page, if anything conveying a slightly warmer tone than that of the book. Then we get to the imagining of the world itself. It’s fantastic! It looks exactly how you’d expect it to. There’s just the right mix of subtle differences and similarities between the onscreen world and ours. Also, there are some magnificent set pieces, the bear fight and the rescue of the kidnapped children to name but two. To sum up, when The Golden Compass gets it right, it nails it. However, when it doesn’t, it fails hugely.
When a book makes the break from page to screen it has to stand up on its own two feet. It has to be a film in its own right. This means, you have to be able to follow the plot without first of all reading the book. Unfortunately, if you haven’t read The Northern Lights, (The Golden Compass), you’d be hard pressed to keep abreast of what’s going on. If you’ve ever seen Dune and not read the book, you’ll know exactly what I mean. Without the foreknowledge of the story, Dune the film, was practically incomprehensible. However, seeing Dune after reading the book, meant that the film worked, albeit more as a graphical accompaniment to the story, than a story in its own right. The same complaint can be levelled at The Golden Compass. The film simply doesn’t stand up on its own.
The movie begins with a voice-over telling the audience about the multiply universe theory and immediately alarm bells start ringing. Surely if a tale is told correctly, there’s no need for a band-aid solution voice-over to keep everyone in the loop? It’s the first sign that the film has been rushed and it happens within 30 seconds.
This is the main complaint I have with The Golden Compass is that it all feels too rushed. It’s as if director Chris Weitz has tried to cram in every single part of the book into a two hour film. The result being that there’s no time allowed to dwell on moments that really need to be fleshed out. The recruitment of Iorek Byrnison is a perfect example of this. Drunk bear to sudden convert to the cause in 30 seconds flat!
The great peaks of this film are made all the more obvious by the low parts. It’s a real shame that the pacing is so badly off and that the editing in places makes no sense, as it all adds up to a film that feels unfinished. Not to mention the immensely unsatisfying ending. The 1st Lord of the Rings film left you wanting more, this leaves you going, “Is that it?”. I wonder what the film would have been like if allowed an extra 30 – 40 minutes of time to breath? I really hope the Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass make it to the big screen, as taken as in context the issues raised by this film could disappear into the background.
A gold starfor effor and another for when it gets it right but the problems raised above spoil the overall enjoyment and as a result The Golden Compass only manages a 3 out of 5 over all.