Movie Review: The Golden Compass

Over the holidays, I went to see something I had been very much looking forward to ever since I read the novel. For the most part, it didn't disappoint.

I'm talking about the movie adaptation of Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass, which is part of His Dark Materials trilogy. I was very impressed with the book, and I was eagerly awaiting to se how well the movie would translate to the big screen.

The first thing I really noticed as a reader of the book, was that the visual look was very much as described in the book. There wasn't a moment where I felt something wasn't what it was. Seeing something visually that was only up until then described in the book was visually breathtaking, and in a sense was another layer into the world of Lyra. I was finally there.

Of course, no movie can be without its faults, and the movie does have quite a few faults. Namely, it's in the way the events unfold. I don't want to spoil anything here, instead I'll explain it away using situations. So, let's say you have scenario A happening in the book, followed by scenario B. What the movie did was switch the order around so that Scenario B was actually Scenario A, and vice-versa.

A => B
B => A

Naturally when I first realized the scenarios happened in a different order, I was confused. Scenario B in the book was supposed to be its big climax, token chase/battle scene, instead it was moved up to be Scenario A, while Scenario A became the big climax. I know it was done for a reason, but the result in my opinion, is that it seemed to cheapen the impact of the message as it simplified the explanations overall. That's my main gripe with the movie.

Overall though, I would definitely recommend it. The story translates well to the big screen, and I can't wait to see the further adventures of Lyra on the big screen.