This film has stunning visuals and some good acting, but unfortunately Weitz’s screenplay has everyone (not just Lyra and her peer group) speaking like a child and reminding us of the exposition every ten minutes.

Of course, a disappointing screenplay leads to a disappointing film overall. This is a sadly missed opportunity to adapt a marvelous book into an equally good movie.

Meh, that was disappointing. The whole thing must make very little sense to anyone who hasn’t read the books, as it just zooms back and forth between different characters – none of whom get much of a chance to develop at all – and different scenes, rushing through the story at a rate of knots. The pace slows at odd moments before tearing onwards again, somehow missing on any sense of real excitement as it crams everything in.

The climax is handled well enough, before a slightly stomach churning, “We’re in this together”/we shall conquer moment. Alas, the irritation of the character I know to be more central in the second book has already put me off the second film!

Much worse than I expected. The acting and special effects were fine, but It’s as if they severed the book from its daemon and put the resulting dull-witted zombie script on screen.

At least the bearfight was cool.

SPOILERS WARNING

Well, over all I was really pleased. I had some disappointments but one of my biggest fears was the acting of Dakota Blue Richards – I feared with another “unknown” we’d have a repeat of Daniel Radcliffe – but I thought she did really well, especially considering her age and lack of experience. I still don’t like Nicole Kidman though, I don’t know why but it’s like I can just tell she’s acting.

I saw the movie with 3 people who haven’t read the books and they all really enjoyed it too. My husband says he liked it more than any of the Harry Potter movies and now wants to read the books. He says it was more sophisticated than Harry Potter but doesn’t understand where all the controversey is coming from (I then explained the controversial parts are mainly in the last book). The only thing he felt they didn’t explain very well was why/how Lyra was living at the college.

One of the annoyances is that I could tell the only reason it’s rated PG-13 in the States is because of the ONE line where Serafina refers to her “former lover”. I know young kids won’t understand the depth of the story but I think it could still be enjoyable to them as a fantasy adventure – but they had to alienate that age group to put in ONE line.

My other disappointments:

1. The amount of scenes in the trailer that were cut from the movie. I understand cutting scenes is a normal process but don’t put scenes in the trailer if you think they might be cut! They manage it with other movies, why not this one? I hate seeing trailers and looking forward to seeing more of certain scenes and then realizing the scene has been cut. I was especially looking forward to the scene where Lyra screams “I’m not yours! I’ll never be yours!” which looks like it should have been the ending scene where the she’s about to go into the next world. Even though cutting the end off early took me by surprise and I was disappointed because I really wanted to see that scene, I understood why they did it. My husband felt the movie ended at just the right place and if they don’t edit it to please the viewers who haven’t read the book, they’ll just get criticized for that. It’s a damned if they do, damned if they don’t situation. So I was disappointed but I do understand their reasoning. I just hope that scene is in the beginning of the next movie!

2. I felt like they kind of brushed over the horror of losing one’s Daemon. I remember in the books, seeing the boy without a Daemon is so horrific, it’s almost sickening. But I don’t think they portrayed the strength of the horror in the movie. It was so fast paced that they rushed over it. And when Ma Costa says “we’ll get your daemon back” – I thought that really misrepresented the concept of daemons to the non-book readers.

But everything else about it was great – the CGI was amazing and just the imagary in general too was really beautiful. Overall I thought they did a fantastic job bringing the book to life. They must face all sorts of criticizism whenever they make a movie from a book but I really enjoyed it.

Very disappointing. THere were bits that were amazing, but it didn’t come together very well. I guess the book was so magical, it would always be hard to turn that into a movie. But I had hoped for a lot more. Also, I am still a bit bitter than they called it the Golden Compass insted of the Northern Lights.

The film ends up being the book on fast-forward; too much detail is lost and all that makes the book good is blurred by the desire for pacing and special effects. The plot is there, but the narrative ends up being a jumbled mess.

Of course it’s not an absolutely “perfect” adaption of a book, but have you ever seen one?!
I liked the actors – Nicole Kidman was brilliant, and Lyra too. The girl looked very special, interesting face. The animations of the icebears and the flying ship were done very nicely. And the daemons got really cute!

What didn’t convince me were the gypter – they should have been much more like gypsies. And the zoom-scenes into the golden compass… well… I think that’s a question of taste. I also disliked the beginning, which already stated all the facts and left nothing to wonder and surprise.

All in all it was a lovely movie! I enjoyed my time in the cinema very much and am looking forward for the Magic Knive :)!