In a parallel universe, young Lyra Belacqua journeys to the far North to save her best friend whom she fears has been kidnapped by a powerful and secret organization.

This is a great first installment to yet another book based fantasy trilogy. Despite all the nonsense about anti-catholicism, etc., or perhaps because of it, I really liked the film. Nicole Kidman as the villainess Marisa Coulter is perfection. The young girl who plays the heroine of the story was strong enough to carry the film without too much cheesy childish sentimentality. All the fantastic characters, Egyptians (gypsies), ice bears (polar bears), souls, witches, were very interesting and never bordered on the ridiculous.

What intrigued me most about the Golden Compass was the idea that a parallel universe would be populated with humans whose souls lived outside their bodies as companions animal forms. It makes you think and contemplate on what a soul is and how we communicate with it (if we do) everyday and how it makes, shapes and defines us. Now, it’s obvious that the secret organization is supposed to be something religious in nature and not just political and that their silencing the souls of children so they won’t question the existence of the interconnectedness of everything in the universe by something called “dust” (cosmic dust), is akin to Christian secs especially who don’t want people to question faith, but believe blindly.

I was watching a news channel the other day and some film critic was saying that the metaphor was heavy handed. I didn’t think so at all. Most fantasy films (and science fiction in general) are loaded with metaphors on evil secret organizations trying to steal our humanities by silencing us in some way. Usually the organizations are more political than religious in nature and its more a stab at “big brother” than “god”. Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, Matrix, Harry Potter, etc. What we respond to most, I think, in watching these fantasy adventure epics or science fiction films is our own distaste for political, religious or other authoritative organizations that dictate how we should live in spite of our individual desires. Or rather, how we should live contrary to our individual natural human desires for some greater good. A good which is defined by a small minority of very rich, very old, very…ummm Caucasian men.

Anyway, the movie was a beautiful piece of metaphor. Beautifully directed and with great special effects. In the end, I wish I had my own soul in animal form as companion to walk with me through life. The acting, especially by Kidman was great. The writing flowed and never seemed rushed or cut off considered the grandness of the story. I look forward to the second installment.

• Directing: [rating:5/5]
• Acting: [rating:4/5]
• Casting: [rating:4/5]
• Cinematography: [rating:4/5]
• Writing: [rating:4/5]
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