The Golden Compass (2007)

"In a parallel universe, young Lyra Belacqua journeys to the far North to save her best friend and other kidnapped children from terrible experiments by a mysterious organization."

I watched this mainly to get away from the overheated mall shops and waste a couple of hours.

Although this isn't my kind of thing at all, I didn't completely hate it. I did manage to fall asleep in the middle though and only woke up when the CGI polar bears were fighting. I'd probably still be sleeping through it now if the movie theatre hadn't been so cold and my bladder full of a bucket-sized Coke hadn't rebelled against me. Yes, I did pee myself a little bit, in case you were wondering.

"The Golden Compass" is a bit weird, kiddified, and the plot is all over the place, but I found it was nice to hear some good old English accents again even if Nicole Kidman's is obviously fake.

I'm sure that the books are better than this so I might read them one day. I've seen all three in one paperback for $20, so I think I'll have that next time I go out.

As for the anti-Christian stuff that I have heard rumours about, where was it? I didn't notice anything religious in this apart from the "demons" and the fact that the heroine was supposed to be from unmarried parents and went to Jordan college. I'm probably missing out on some really clever subtext, but I just enjoyed it as a story, not as some kind of athiestic sermon.

"The Golden Compass" all just fantasy anyway. It's no worse than Narnia but certainly isn't any better unfortunately.

Also because it has a "to be continued" ending, it will indeed suck even more if they don't make the next one.


Update: There will never be a sequel.