|
The Golden Compass 6 out of 10
Running time: 1:53 MPAA rating: PG-13 (Sequences of fantasy violence.) Peruvian rating: Mayores de 14
Cast:
Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota
Blue Richards, Ben Walker, Ian McKellan (voice), Eva Green, Jim
Carter, Sam Elliott, Freddie Highmore (voice). |
 |
I've never read any of the His Dark Materials novels by British author Phillip Pullman, but almost everyone who have seem to agree on the fact that they're superb fantasy literature, focusing on interesting ideas and themes, and conveying some of the author's more controversial believes. The movie adaptation of the first chapter of the trilogy, named The Northern Lights in the U.K. and The Golden Compass in the U.S. (and virtually everywhere else) and titled simply The Golden Compass in its cinematic incarnation is an adequate yet lame fantasy film. The movie boasts some effective performances and cool-looking special effects, but it's too short, character development is virtually non-existent, the story feels too rushed, and the screenplay and the film as a whole fail to make audience believe in a new world and get used to new characters and themes. The Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings films and even the Narnia movie were more effective at presenting the viewer with a never-before-seen world and fantastic characters; The Golden Compass feels generic, not ambitious enough and, most surprisingly, kinda boring.
The film tells the story of of Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards), an orphan whose only living relative is the powerful Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), who's hand-picked by the cool, beautiful Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman) to go with her on a trip to the north and meet the ice bears. Before Lyra leaves, though, her best friend, Roger (Ben Walker), is captured by a mysterious organization known only as "The Gobblers", and is also given, in secret, a device called "alethiometer" (which looks like a golden compass) by the Master of Jordan College. It reveals the truth of whatever she asks, but she must not let Mrs. Coulter know she has it. Life with Mrs. Coulter becomes too restrictive for young Lyra, though, so she runs away and begins her quest to find and rescue Roger - an adventure which gets her to meet with many extraordinary companions, including the armored ice bear Iorek Byrnison (voice of Ian McKellan), an aeronaut named Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliott), the Gyptian king John Faa (Jim Carter), and the witch queen Serafina Pekkala (Eva Green). Their aims set them against the Magisterium, which opposes the free will of the population of their world.
So what are the problems that set this movie apart from other really great adventures such as the Lord of the Rings films? Firstly, there's the fact that I didn't get a sense of "epicness" or ambition while watching this movie, and this has to do both with Chris Weitz's (About a Boy) screenplay and direction. The story and the movie as a whole feel too rushed, with events happening real quickly and revelations taking place in the most unexpected occasions. (Such as the one that occurs during the film's climax.) With a duration of almost two hours, the film is not precisely short but, had it been about three hours long, the filmmakers would have had more time to develop the story and the characters. Yes, Dakota Blue Richard's Lyra is a pretty compelling protagonist, but her character isn't allowed time to breath; she never seems to change during the course of the movie, and the audience never truly learns anything about her. Additionally, Weitz's direction is lackluster and workmanlike, never really trying to use anything new or taking any risks to make the feel more interesting and cool to look at. The camerawork and the types of angles he uses feel too conventional for a film of this ilk, and the movie just never attains a sense of epic scope; it's kinda boring actually.
The performances are all right, but they're nothing to rave about either. Dakota Blue Richards is effective as Lyra, creating an unusual protagonist for a movie of this sort - she's feisty and angry, instead of cute and pretty. Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulter is not bad either, making her character suitably evil and cold. She never gets the opportunity to shine, but she understands her character and makes an effective villainess. Daniel Craig doesn't get much screentime, and Derek Jacobi and Christopher Lee have very brief appearances as Magisterial officers. Ian McKellen as the voice of Iorek Byrnison is effective and creates a sense of authority, and Freddie Highmore as the voice of Pan is not as annoying as it could've been. Sam Elliott is delightful as Mr. Scoresby (his famous moustache gets a lot of screentime), and Eva Green is wasted as the Queen of the Witches (although her performance is not bad at all). Yes, the cast is full of stars and well-known thespians, but the majority of them don't have more than glorified cameos; the movie belongs to Blue Richards and Kidman, and they show ability to carry the movie's - rushed - plot.
Technically, the film's all right, and after more than an hour of exposition, tons of dialogue, rushed scenes and non-existent character development, the movie attains some energy. The battle sequences look good (the fight between Iorek and another character I won't mention is pretty cool and serves magnificently as eye-candy) and the CGI is technically impressive but, although they might inject some energy to the proceedings, they never generate enough tension or become sufficiently entertaining. The film's final battle, which features kids, "giptians" (or whatever they're called) and flying witches is technically impressive, but never generated enough tension; it didn't engage me at all, especially because character interaction is virtually non-existent. The audience watches groups of characters fight in a dark scenery in the middle of the north pole, not the main protagonists risking their lives for some important aim. Additionally, the battle just ends... yes, with a big roar of the big, polar bear, but it's too sudden, and since the fighting itself has been pretty boring, I just didn't care when everyone stopped killing each other. Also, this movie features more or less the same problem as the Narnia movie: the battles are bloodless and told in a pretty clean, almost naive fashion. Given the PG-13 rating, the fights in this movie could have been a little more brutal, making the confrontations more engaging, interesting and believable.
Ultimately, I wasn't impressed by The Golden Compass. Yes, the novels might be engaging, and might feature interesting, deep and philosophical ideas and themes, but the film adaptation of the trilogy's first volume is pretty boring. None of these ideas - not even the concepts of daemons and dust - are shown in a compelling fashion in the movie, and the fantasy world created by Pullman is presented to the audience in a lackluster and workmanlike manner. The performances might be good and the special effects might look cool, but the direction and screenplay are lame, the characters are too underdeveloped and the film as a whole is boring. Even the religious controversy is a faux - none of Pullman's atheist views and believes make it to the movie, which makes the story about people representing free will fighting against the forces of tyranny. I hope that, if Weitz and his team do adapt The Subtle Knife to the big screen - something which seems improbable now due to this movie's somehow disappointing performance at the American box office - they will manage to construct a more interesting, compelling and entertaining motion picture.
©2007 Sebastián Zavala - Star Wars Epica