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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN: 0794043120435
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: New Line Home Video
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: New Line Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 29, 2008
Running Time: 113 minutes
Sales Rank: 1785
Studio: New Line Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: December 07, 2007
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
A fantasy epic with more than a passing resemblance to the Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia film franchises, The Golden Compass takes place in an alternate universe where each human's soul is embodied in a companion animal called a daemon. Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards), an orphan who's lived most of her life among the scholars at Oxford, is intrigued when her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), announces his plans to travel north to investigate the source of some mysterious particles called Dust. Lyra has little hope of following her uncle until a mysterious woman named Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman, at her most icily beautiful) asks Lyra to travel north as her personal assistant. All is not as it seems, however, and the disappearance of Lyra's friend Roger (Ben Walker) sets her on a dizzying adventure. She does have an alethiometer, or golden compass, that can help her see the truth, and a number of companions, including her shape-shifting daemon, Pantalaimion (voiced by Freddie Highmore of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), polar-bear warrior Iorek Byrnison (voiced by Ian McKellen), Texas aeronaut Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliott), and witch queen Serafina Pekkala (Craig's Casino Royale co-star, Eva Green). Even before its release, The Golden Compass was the subject of controversy over its perceived anti-religious themes. While it does involve an oppressive institution called the Magisterium, it's not overtly religious, particularly to a young viewer. The movie's PG-13 rating should be taken seriously, however. Suitable for an older audience than Narnia (though younger than The Lord of the Rings), it deals with complex concepts, violence (though largely bloodless) and implied death, children and animals in peril, and an unrelentingly ominous and unsettling mood.
Despite a few changes and rearrangements, the overall plot of the movie is remarkably faithful to its source material, the first installment of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. It doesn't finish the book, however, and--much like The Fellowship of the Ring did--leaves the viewer hanging in anticipation of the next film, The Subtle Knife, due in 2009. So even though The Golden Compass is impressive--especially with its spot-on cast and terrific visual effects--we probably won't know its full emotional impact until the story is complete. --David Horiuchi
Product Description:
In a parallel universe where witches rule the skies and armoured bears are the bravest warriors young Lyra Belacqua journeys from her home among the scholars at Oxford to the far North to save her best friend. Based on the first book in the Carnegie Medal-winning series His Dark Materials.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY/FANTASY UPC: 794043120435 Manufacturer No: 1000038167
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Amazing
Pros: Excellent story, amazing animation, fast moving, realistic story given that it seems to be based on a re-mix of our own history.
This is a replacement for Harry Potter since that story (movie sequence) seems to be wrapping up.
Cons: This story is going to span about 3 movies which is a good thing if you don't mind waiting for the remaining films.
Rating:  - In The Not-Too-Distant Future...
Once upon a time, there was a show called Mystery Science Theater 3000. The premise of this show was to take bad movies from bygone days and riff snarky comedy off of them.
Watching MST3k (as it was known by its fans, the MSTies), I was always led to wonder about the original films. For most of them, presumably, there was a day when the movie was taken kind of seriously. I mean, maybe not Manos, but some of those others -- they had writers, directors, and actors who wanted to produce a decent, money-making product (not to mention the investors/producers!). I also bet that a number of the movies spoofed by Joel, Mike & the bots had fans at one point. That they were not complete flops at the theater, or in the minds of the theater-goers.
In many respects, cinema has changed from then to now. Budgets are up all-around, and standards have changed so that we're not likely to see the zippers on monsters anymore. But, as the expression goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Bad writing is still bad writing. Zippers on costumes have been replaced with bad CG effects. And high-budget schlock is arguably worse than the low-budget variety. I expect that 30 years from now, we'll again be able to support an MST3k-type venture. If so, certainly there are movies from our age that they could slam with justice.
I submit to you that The Golden Compass is one of those movies.
Reading Philip Pullman's novel was a decent experience. I enjoyed ... Read More
Rating: - One of the best and most beautiful fantasy films in a long time!
I absolutely loved this film! Between the narrow-minded religious righters, and the hardcore book fans, this movie was bound to get a lot of negative reviews. But it is smart, well acted, well written, and stunning to watch. Most of all, it is a wonderful and brilliantly thought out mythology. One of the most creative and thorough I have seen.
I find it funny that half the negative reviews say it moved too fast, and the other half say it was too boring. I thought it was just wonderful, and can hardly wait for the next movie!! PS. To the people who say this bombed, it has done EXTREMELY WELL in Europe!
Rating:  - Lots of "telling" and no clear character motivation
This movie is fun to watch for the CGI world, and the acting is generally fine, but those are the only good parts. The overall storytelling is terrible, and the characters' motivations are never explained.
It starts in the narration at the beginning when we're told that the Magisterium wants to preserve their truth so they've destroyed all the alethiometers (which reveal hidden truths) and banned the mention of dust. What does the Magisterium fear from dust?? We're never told. And what "truths" is the Magisterium trying to protect? We're never told. The movie basically says, "They're the bad guys" but gives no other explanation.
What is the motivation of Nicole Kidman's character to do what she does? We're never told. How do the Gyptians (or whatever they're called) know that the missing kids have been taken to the north? We're never told. Why does the movie billing say that it stars Daniel Craig when he only appears in the first five minutes? We're never told!
However, we are "told" lots of the story. Instead of *showing* the story to us, several of the characters have long lines explaining all sorts of things for the benefit of the audience. Boring and contrived. And two characters tell Lyra bits of information that she uses later in the story, but the characters have no reason to tell her those things at the time that they tell her. Very awfully contrived.
One of the worst aspects of this movie is that it is an incomplete first installment that ... Read More
Rating: - Golden Compass
My son loves this movie. He keeps picking up rocks and pretending they're a golden compass...I'm all for anything that inspires his creativity:)
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