The Golden Compass (DVD)

THE GOLDEN COMPASS. The plot: The plot on this is pretty good, it starts off with this orphan girl named lyra. In her world every human person has a pet which guides them and in this film they are called daemon's. Because she is young, Lyra's daemon can change his shape to appear as any animal he chooses. Adults' daemons settle in to one shape and don't change. There has been many children going missing from lyras town and they have been getting stolen off people they call goblins, and lyra is the only one who can find out where they are by reading a golden compass that reveals anything that is hidden. She then gets into trouble with the ...  Read the complete review

*Film only review* It was the Christian Right that done it! This may have been a phrase you heard when investigating why big budget kid's film 'The Golden Compass' recently flopped at US box office. You see Christian groups in America felt that the original books by Philip Pullman had a decidedly anti-Christian stance to them. This is a little odd to me as the bad guys in 'The Golden Compass' are a group of bigoted, mean spirited, science defying zealots. Personally, I would try not to compare myself to them! Anyway, with an all points bulletin out for all right thinking Christians to boycott this film when the figures were below par the extremists had ...  Read the complete review

In a genre dominated by movies featuring young children emerging through wizardhood, battling he who should not be named and throwing star-spattered conical hats in the air at the end of every story, there was decreed (only because we were getting a bit bored with the bespectacled young hero) a changing of the guard and a new fantasy franchise borne of a different author. Yes, having spanned the years dating back to 2001, the Harry Potter phenomenon finally looked like it had met its successor, having flirted with serious competition in the guise of Disney's "Chronicles of Narnia" saga, in the shape of the blockbuster release of this Yuletide: "The Golden ...  Read the complete review

note: also appears in part on Flixster and The Student Room I haven't read any of the "His Dark Materials" novels, although I was aware of them, and in particular the powerful religious allegory therein that had caused so much controversy when the film (and novel) were first released, but I was very much a newcomer going into this film. Thus, I'm not a foaming fanboy, but at the same time the trailer hadn't filled me with much confidence that this would be much more than a standard Hollywood fantasy adaptation with pretty faces and impressive effects. Sadly, my suspicions appear to be correct. What I have understood from friends is that ...  Read the complete review

Plot: Based on the first book in the 'Dark Materials' Trilogy by Phillip Pullman, 'Northern Lights', this is a story about a young gril named Lyra, living in a parallel universe to our own, and thrust unexpectedly into the middle of a scientific-religious war. When her young friend Roger is captured by a mysterious gang of child-snatchers called the Gobblers, Lyra vows she will go to North and rescue him. The mysterious Mrs. Coulter offers to take her, but Mrs. Coulter is not what she seems to be, and Lyra is forced to flee from her, with the aid of the Gyptians and a ferocious armoured bear. Deep in the north, Lyra joins the fight against Mrs. Coulter and the ...  Read the complete review