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WARNING: Contains Major Plot Spoilers…

My girlfriend and I went to see The Golden Compass last night and as fans of the book came away slightly disappointed, partly by the amount of changes made from the book, and partly by the fudged ending.

I previewed the film way back in June, when I was super excited about the prospect of seeing one of my favourite books ever be brought to life on the big screen. My review is slightly different…

The casting is pretty much spot on, with Nicole Kidman being perfect for Mrs Coulter, and Ian McKellen doing a fine job as Iorek Byrnison.

Some of the special effects are stunning, with the armoured bears particularly standing out. The whole Iorek part of the story, especially his fight to become king of Svalbard, was the highlight of the film for me, and stopped me walking out in disgust.

The daemons were also well realised, being exactly as I’d imagined them in the books. It must have taken some incredibly detailed work to get so many daemons on screen at one time.

Some of the alterations to the text I could understand, while some I could see no rhyme nor reason for. The ordering of the story is altered substantially, with Iorek becoming king BEFORE Lyra visits Bolvangor.

To people who haven’t read the book, this won’t matter a jot, and the film will probably leave them content. For fans of the book however, there are some glaring omissions, the biggest being the soppy ending.

The book ends some major revelations, the death of a character, and a cliffhanger of epic proportions. In the film, that is all left out, and instead we get a cutesy happy ending where no-one dies, and they all sail off in to the sunset.

The film does plenty right, and kept me entertained for two hours, but there were too many moments where I was disappointed, or even upset at the compromises.

There has been plenty of controversy surrounding the film, with the Catholic League trying to ban or at least get the film boycotted because of it’s supposed anti-religious overtones. The church is never actually named, but it’s pretty obvious by placement of religious garments, and church-like architecture that that is who is being parodied.

The Golden Compass is more about free will than anything else, and I can’t help wondering if the groups who are protesting over the film are just proving the authors claims that religions are too controlling and scared of even having a debate on the issues.

I did enjoy the film while it was on, and the two hours went past pretty quickly, BUT I also came out with an incredible feeling of “Is that it?” This is the only film that will ever be made of that book, and for me it just doesn’t do it justice. Which is a real shame.

Now I’m off to read books 2 and 3, and try to dissolve the memory of a poor screenplay, and attempt to convert a classic story in to a movie which failed quite badly in my opinion.

The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman, Northern Lights, The Amber Spyglass, The Subtle Knife, UK, Daemon, Iorek Byrnison, Ian McKellen, Nicole Kidman, Lyra Belacqua