Jo and I went to see this movie today. Got the thumbs up from both of us. Based on the book/s by Philip Pullman, with similarities to Lord of the Rings, and The Chronicles of Narnia.
It is set in a world similar to ours, in a parallel universe where people’s souls take the form of an animal “daemon”. I really like this idea – the animal behaves like a companion and can talk to its human. While the human is still a child, the daemon can change into different forms; eventually the daemon settles into a fixed form when the child becomes an adult.
The hero is a young girl called Lyra, who is on a mission to rescue her friends; and discovers her ability to read the strange symbols of the Alethiometer, or Golden Compass – a rare and outlawed device entrusted to her by her uncle the Lord Asriel (played by Daniel Craig).
Nicole Kidman plays the mysterious and sinister villain Mrs Coulter, who seems psychologically damaged and brainwashed by the ruling Magisterium. Jo said she enjoyed Kidman’s performance, I could only notice how unbelievably thin she is.
Before seeing this movie I read a review which commented on Sam Elliot’s overdone drawl, for his character Mr Scoresby. Yes, I see what the writer meant and particularly in contrast to the beautifully English growl of Sir Ian McKellen, who does the voice of armoured bear Iorek (a frighteningly fierce yet endearing character). Reviewer Roger Ebert comments that stories of this genre always seem to require British accents for some reason, and Elliot’s American drawl seems disturbingly out of place.
There are heaps of better reviews to read on this movie, I am simply going to say I enjoyed it without analysing the where-to-fors.