The Golden Compass...

[Claire]

...or Northern Lights to those of us in the know! Went to see this film and I have to say I rather enjoyed it. I thought it was very well cast, especially with Nicole Kidman doing a delightful turn as the dastardly hypnotic Mrs Coulter. Daniel Craig's blue eyes also did a star turn. Dakota Blue Richards is very good too. Jonathan Ross said the film was good with great CG etc but was let down by - in particular - the plot: bits missing/glossed over, events referred to but not witnessed etc. Probem is, i've read the book, so if something was missing, i knew about it. Even though i knew what was going to happen the film was genuinely full of tension because events (in a positive way) were less protracted than in the book. Overall, good. /

[Mike]

We went to see this film last night. I must say I was less impressed than Claire. The actors were of excellent quality and the CGI was near perfect, however, the plot and the directing were just absolute bobbins (being polite). The whole film seemed to be a series of very quick small scenes all strung together really poorly with lots of effects and no substance. The plot was explained very badly indeed and they actually re-arranged the authors intended story-line so the film ended in a big fight scene. In addition the actual end of the story was cut out!

I was so unimpressed with this film it is unbelievable. In addition I had to actually explain the intended plot to people who had not read the book because the film was insufficient. Therefore the rating is overall . The graphics and effects get a beauty rating but that is not worth spending money to see the film in my humble opinion.

I have read some articles that suggest that New Line Cinema have poured money into this film and if it fails to be a box office hit then they will be in serious trouble. I feel that all their funds and efforts have been to no positive effect! We shall see how it pans out.

[Claire]

They should get Peter Jackson on the case. He's their cash cow, isn't he?

[Mike]

He was probably laughing all the way to the bank on the back of Lord of the Rings and King Kong so will never need to work again!

[Claire]

Yeah well, between those four films, videos, DVDs and return visits to the cinema to see the extended version, I've personally donated about £100 to the franchise! Ridiculous!

[BarcelonAl]

And we get to do it all again when the (two...how did that happen?) Hobbit films finally get made!

[mr_e]

Well, the plot wasn't up to much in this, but it seemed like it was just there to get us to another cool special effects laden scene. It's good fantasy/adventure film fodder, entertaining whilst you're watching it, but nothing more. The complaints about the Magisterium/Catholicism parallel have become a lot clearer to me now (not the most subtle visual references ever).