DNfromMN -- Movie Review -- The Golden Compass
THE GOLDEN COMPASS
Release Date December 7, 2007
I’m going to do this review backwards.
What it’s worth: $5.00, a rental or second-run theater. It’s competent (damning with faint praise), just not special. And it is not anti-Catholic, or anti-religion. The only thing it’s against is closed-mindedness.
It’s hard to review a movie that you have no strong feelings towards. One thing that bothered me was that Nicole Kidman has a divot on the underside of her nose, and I was obsessed with proving it was a nose job but I just found a Dead Calm/Malice era 
(ie. curly haired Nic – the cuter, slightly curvier, sexier side) that has it. I’d also seen Margot at the Wedding this week, and I guess Nicole only wanted to play unlikable people this year. Daniel Craig is in the movie for only 3 scenes, and he does fine. The kids didn’t annoy me, which is pretty rare for child actors. There were some cool images with the animal souls, but otherwise nothing special. It’s directed by the guy who did American Pie and About a Boy, and I’m not going to fault him anything, it was just nothing remarkable.
There is some animal violence, and my boyfriend heard a woman on her cellphone (outside on the way to the bathroom) saying she and the (under 8) kids had to go because they got upset. It’s nothing worse than what you’d see on a nature show, but there is a lower jaw that gets removed (again, computerized animal). The ice bears in the preview kind of look like the Coca-Cola polar bears, and I was almost expecting them to sneak one in, but they didn’t.
The story follows young Lyra, a charming and imaginative child who doesn’t follow the rules. Her uncle Asriel (Daniel Craig) has found a long forgotten substance in the far north, this substance is linked to creativity and instability. Needless to say, the ruling order (The Magisterium) doesn’t like independent thinking and wants to quash any mention of “dust”. Lyra meets with Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman) who admits to being a rule-breaking child herself back in the day. If you’ve seen the previews, you know that their bond doesn’t last. I don’t think I gave away anything past the first half hour. You can watch the first 5 minutes of the film yourself here.
Enjoy, or not.
Pre-botox and red hair Nicole is prettier.
ReplyDeletei was really incensed that an email friend sent out an email to every person she knew bashing the movie because it was anti-God, etc., etc. i'd never even heard of it, and neither had she. let her post it on her site, but don't effing shove it in my face. oh, did i mention that this was WEEKS ago? or that she and her hubby found it hysterical that their kids knew all the really dirty words (at 3 and 5) and used them liberally?
ReplyDeletewhereas my 26 yr. old told me the other night that the books were pretty cool. there's a reference i'll use.
oh, and yours, of course,dnfrommn. i'll wait for cable, thanks for dodging a bullet for me!