The Golden Compass

*** – While it is has less depth than the “Lord of the Rings” series “The Golden Compass” – based on the first of three books in Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy - is also less frivolous and superficial than “Harry Potter” and serves nicely as a sort of anti-“Narnia”. The works of C.S. Lewis - upon which the “Narnia” films are based - sing the praises of religion and seem to have a main purpose of showing how Jesus is totally awesome and stuff (and possibly also a lion). However, this movie (and one could extrapolate, the books it is based on) is all about the struggle of an enlightened freethinking intelligentsia against the perverse and autocratic dogma of the church. For that aspect of it alone I gave this movie a nice little boost in the ratings. Unfortunately, looking at ”The Golden Compass” in just the sense of a cinematic experience leaves one wanting a bit more. It seemed to me as though the characters and storylines were not very fleshed out here. I have not read the novels on which this was based, but I get the distinct sense that a great deal was left out for the sake of having one hour forty-five minute kid-friendly film. Characters and plot points sort of jumped all over the place and practically none of what could probably be an intricate and engrossing world was explored in any way other than to give basic ideas about what was happening on screen. Despite these flaws and the fact that it ends rather abruptly this was still a solid adventure yarn, and I’d watch this over any of the “Narnia” or “Potter” films any day of the week. Including Sunday… take that, Jesus!