The Golden Compass

I read Philip Pullman's Dark Materials Trilogy a few years ago and although I enjoyed it I still preferred "The Lord of The Rings". Yesterday I saw The Golden Compass (Northern Lights is the title of the book) and was quite impressed. The imagery of Lyra's alternative Earth is very much how I visualised it when reading the novel and it seems to follow the story very well. Nicole Kidman is brilliant as the scheming Mrs Coulter and likewise Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel, however the latter is not in it very much. The armoured bears are excellent and in fact everyone does really well... but there just seems to be something missing. There is no passion to it which makes it a shade disappointing. In LoTR you felt for the characters whereas in GC you don't particular (well I didn't). The daemons work very well however and the attention to detail in what they are doing as the human actors are interacting is done exceptionally well. I would certainly recommend the film but don't expect another LoTR.

Rating: 7.5 / 10.