I came into this film thinking that it couldn’t be better than the Lord of the Rings, but it couldn’t be any worse than The Chronicles of Narnia. At film’s end, my statement was correct. The Golden Compass is set in a fantasy world parallel to our own where people’s souls are shape shifting animals, called “Daemons” outside of their bodies. The story revolves around a 12 year old girl named Lyra, played by newcomer Dakota Blue Richards, who receives a golden compass, which tells the truth. Lyra goes on a journey to save a friend from a mysterious organization called the “Gobblers”, set out to separate people from their animal souls to eliminate the topic of the mysterious “dust”. The film includes an all-star cast of Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliot, and Eva Green with voice inputs from Ian McKellen, Ian McShane, and Kathy Bates. Many James Bond fans will be disappointed to hear that Daniel Craig has very little screen time, possibly causing the film to be a disappointment. At the helm of the film is director Chris Weitz, whose directing style lacks the character development to give the film a taste of true fantasy. The film is abruptly cut short setting up for a possibly below average sequel. What the film does right is the amazing CGI work comparable to The Lord of the Rings with interactive daemons to a vicious battle between two polar bears. Many people were not going to see this film due to its religious content, which I found absent from the screen. Many critics, aka religious fanatics, wrote negative reviews about the film just because it apparently contained some questionable religious content. I found more religious content in Bambi than I did in The Golden Compass. (Their is something about that deer.) True moviegoers should look past the religious content, if their is any, for the true fantasy adventure.

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