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The Golden Compass (New Line Platinum Series Two-Disc Widescreen Edition) | 
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| Director: Chris Weitz
Actors: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards, Ben Walker (ix), Freddie Highmore
Studio: New Line Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $34.99
Buy New: $15.99
You Save: $19.00 (54%)
New (42) Used (17) Collectible (3) from $11.66
Avg. Customer Rating:  226 reviews
Sales Rank: 3294
Format: Ac-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), Icelandic (Original Language), Russian (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 2
Running Time: 113
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.7
MPN: 1000038167
UPC: 794043120435
EAN: 0794043120435
ASIN: B00005JPNY
Theatrical Release Date: December 7, 2007
Release Date: April 29, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New and Factory sealed - 100% satisfaction guaranteed!
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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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 221 more reviews...
 Movie: 2/5 Picture Quality: 3~4/5 Sound Quality: 4/5 Extras: 4/5 August 29, 2008
Version: U.S.A / Region A
VC-1 BD-50
Running time: 1:53:17
Disc size: 48,426,421,480 bytes
Movie size: 25,958,633,472 bytes
Average Video Bit Rate: 22.63 Mbps
DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 24-bit
(BonusView) PiP Secondary Encode
VC-1
Movie size: 21,609,013,248
DTS 5.1 1509Kbps 24-bit
Contains moderate to heavy application of Digital Video Noise Reduction (DNR)
 Didn't read the book.... sorry August 28, 2008
I never heard of the books but then as far as i knew young Mr. Potter was all the rage. I had to give this film a pass when it first came out even though I wanted to see it. Life got in the way and many moons later I finally viewed the film on DVD, a rental to boot.
I have to say, I'm not sure why this film has so many mixed reviews when I, my wife and college age daughters all loved it.
Why? Because we did. We found the characters to be both complex and sympathetic. The story is very intriquing and well paced. I'm glad it was rated PG13 because it had a few rough spots (the polar bear warriors fighting was particularly savage). As I don't own this film (a problem I'll rectify soon) I have to forego with explicit descriptions and character's names since it has been a few weeks since we viewed the film. Despite that it left its mark on me. The young lady (Lyra?) was a treat. She was payed with just the right amount of precociousness and innocence as well as drive to make her the perfect foil for adults who disregard youth as simply precocious and naive. Her rescues, escapes and minor triumphs are all worthy of acclaim. Her friends (rescuers and defenders) may have their agendas but they also sincerely help her. The polar bear warrior king was (voiced by Ian McKellen) was perfect as her loyal protector with a history that needed to be resolved.
I've read the complaints about this film and was prepared for the worst. It's too bad their noise prevailed in making this film so unpopular.
Now, thanks to that rabble, I'll have to read the books to get to the finish of the tale. That's not so terrible but this franchise deserved better than it received at the box office. I'm sure the nay-sayers are delighted in their results.
As for the complaints that this film (and the books?) impugned "mother church", well, I saw no such evidence to validate those claims.
No surprise there.
A little disjointed. August 27, 2008
I watched this movie with no memory or knowledge of the controversy surrounding its release. Apparently both sides of the religion and free speech argument had plenty to say. I'm not here to stir that pot. Certainly the controversy precipitated a mediocre box office showing upon the film's release just before Christmas. Yet, the box office intake quadrupled once it hit the international scene, garnering over $360 million. Instead, I rented the DVD with only the knowledge that my wife and kids refused to watch. No matter, there are plenty of films they have self banned to include the Harry Potter series, and I had nothing else to watch on a Sunday afternoon while they were at church.
As the plot opens we are thrust into a fantasy world where our characters exist in a parallel universe. Their souls exist in the form of different kinds of animals called daemons and walk side by side with their human hosts throughout their lives. The kid's daemons can change shapes into different animals, but by the time they are adults the souls become one kind of animal. Our main character Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) is an orphan who is somewhat of a leader among her peers and challenges her friends, foes, and adults to get to the bottom of a mystery. Her child friends are being kidnapped by the "Gobblers" and taken to a far away place in the north. Her mission is to somehow find them and save them from whatever dark fate awaits them. At the start of her journey we meet her uncle Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) who is trying to prove the existence of "dust" which he believes exists in a parallel universe and enters a person's body through their daemon. Lord Asriel obtains funding from the College and proceeds north to prove his theory. Mean time Lyra his taken away from the college by Mrs. Coulter (Nichol Kidman) under the story of being her assistant. Lyra is a little wary of her new found supporter and before she leaves the college is given an alethiometer by the master of the college. The alethiometer, also called the Golden Compass, is an ancient device banned by the Magesterium, the ruling religious party, because it can be used to find the answer to any question as long as the user is skilled in the interpretation of the device. Confusing yet? Lyra escapes her would-be supporter and captor and enlists the services of many adults to include the Gyptians, a head witch, a Texan aeronaut (Sam Eliot), and an outcast armored polar bear as she heads north to solve the mystery and rescue her friends. The pace and sequence of this trek was at a minimum confusing and downright disjointed. I found myself wondering who edited this thing because the transitions from one plot line to the next were as if something important was left on the cutting room floor. For example, Lord Asriel is captured by some nasty tribes of the north and for nearly an hour of the flick we don't know his fate. Then suddenly a narrator says basically he's OK because he bribed his captors....what? The ending seemed absolutely abrupt, and apparently the original ending was deleted in order to bring it back as the start of a planned sequel. On the good side however, the special effects were excellent and garnered an Academy Award. The acting OK and predictable, especially the somewhat type cast antagonist Nichol Kidman and our rustic hero Sam Eliot. I'm thinking kids could probably follow this better than I and would be thoroughly entertained. We have a kid hero on a mission of mercy assisted by all her new found friends and she is the only one that can read the Golden Compass to keep everyone on track. I probably won't be buying this one, but it is certainly worth a watch...that is unless you have religious reservations.
 Begging for a sequel that will probably never come August 26, 2008
I imagine the books are actually more descriptive than the movie for I found this to be somewhat confusing at times. The premise itself lasts for a mere few moments in the film, but, while it sounded interesting, I am sure it is better and more clearly explained in the book. All this talk of Dust and Daemons and witches and prophecies, it was all just too much to fit into the span of 2 hours.
The acting is all quite good, though Daniel Craig is barely in the film. The special effects are truly wonderful and first rate and is really the only thing that keeps your interest.
The plot is all over the place and jumbled. And it is certainly not helped by the awful editing. It jumps way too quickly from scene to scene and we never really know how much time has passed. That is probably the biggest flaw of the film, next to the script.
Furthermore, the ending that pretty much leaves off in the middle of nowhere is desperately in need of a sequel. But from what I have heard, since the movie turned out to be not so profitable, no word of a second movie has been heard, which is unfortuate. Perhaps as a trilogy, as it was meant to be, it can turn out to be a perfectly watchable and possibly enjoable film. But as it stands right now, it is unimpressive and pointless.
ADD Character Development REMOVE Hate-Fest August 16, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
This movie (and I assume the book) started out with what could have been a great premise. People in a parallel universe live with their souls outside their bodies.
The special effects in the movie made the scenes wonderful to watch. However, I didn't go to the theater in order to go to a kind of moving picture art museum; I went to see a movie. And a movie requires enough character development for me to care whether or not the heroine lives or dies or the person she's trying to save lives or dies. Consequently, there's no comparison between this and Lord of the Rings. None at all.
People who read the book already might have had the character development in their heads. And if so, maybe that's how someone could give this thing three stars.
So what's even worse than the lack of character development (and therefore lack of a story worth caring about) is that the movie didn't even get close to resolving like Lord of the Rings did at the end each segment. And you can't call the end of the movie a cliff hanger because....you don't care what happens to the characters next.
But the thing that was most alarming about this film was how directly the author of the book (or the film makters)attack the Catholic Church, if not people of faith in general. I had heard some of the religious hoopla about the film before I went to see it, but there's been religious hoopla about movies before that didn't amount to very much(Example: The Last Temptation of Christ) That is NOT the case here.
Even though I'm not Catholic and am very aware of the Catholic Church's troubled history and some of its abuses, I could see that this movie was not a representation of a difference of opinion OR simply lopsided in its representation of organized religion. It was a hate-fest. I suppose this should have been clear from the beginning of the movie--before I saw how the Catholic imagery was handled--but I was trying to give the movie the benefit of the doubt. However, I doubt there's another reason to name the souls outside the body "demons," no matter how you spell it, other than to put Catholics and people who believe in God down. (Except for creating enough religious hoopla and controversy that people go to see the movie)
Then again, it also seems like the author must have been hurt very deeply at some point by someone who CLAIMED to be a person of faith which is a very sad thing. And I'm sorry for him or her.
But back to the movie--I almost hope someone redoes the movie (and the book it's based on) and does the story again without the anti-religious messages. I know there's a good story to be built around humans having their souls outside the body. I just know it.
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