What can I say about The Golden Compass (*cough* Northern Lights *cough*)? I loved it, simple as that. Well, I can never be that simple…

I have to say, I was really surprised that at 7pm the day after opening (a Saturday no less) the theater was only 1/2 full. Maybe those boycotts are actually making a dent. I really hope not though, I would like to see the remaining two books made into movies, not flop out of existance

The first 30 minutes of the world was mostly spent describing Lyra’s world and while this might seem pretty dull, they did it in an attractive and captivating way. I adored the actress who played Lyra (Dakota Richards,) she is totally convincing in the role and just how I imagined her character from the book. Even more goes to her credit because of her performance with her daemon, who was blue scened in. I couldn’t talk to a non-existent thing so realistically! (All the daemons were also amazingly done, total kudos to the computer geeks behind that, I thought they might clutter the scene but they seem to seamlessly integrate with their human counterparts.) Dust, the Magisterium, daemons, ice bears, witches, it is all there and all so well done!

I don’t feel the film makers downplayed the dogmatic aspects of the film too much. Yes, they did not emphasis the organized religion/Magisterium link as much as in the book but they still keep its spirit intact and visible. If I had to pick and any part of the movie, it would actually be the music. The grand music sequences seemed ill-fitting for the portions of the movie they were placed in. I also feel they could have made the film a little longer without turning it into a drawn-out bore, I would have liked to see a little more character development, as was in the books.

The movie seemed to skip the last chapter of the book, which is quite important. At first this really surprised me but reflecting on it, the ending is very much a second climax which would be better suited for the beginning of the second movie. It will be interesting to see how they choose to do that.

As a fan of the book, I was suitably impressed. I would see the movie again given the chance and I recommend it to anyone attracted the fantasy film genre.