I’ve been meaning to do this for a long time, but it wasn’t until earlier this week that I finally got around to getting myself to a screening of The Golden Compass.

In a parallel steampunk universe, the Catholic Church-like Authority is trying to suppress all competition and innovation, in their belief that this is what’s best for mankind. Or at least themselves; it’s never really clarified how much of what they’re saying they actually believe themselves. A few outposts resist the Authority, and one such proverbial outpost consists of the Oxford colleges. Here the young girl Lyra Belacqua has been raised. She is related to the powerful Lord Asriel, but prefers running around with the street urchins over being educated in metaphysics and suchlike by old men.

It doesn’t take long, however, before Lyra’s safe world is shattered (as it must be; we’re talking Epic Fantasy here, after all). A representative for the Authority attempts to poison Lord Asriel, Gobblers are kidnapping children in the night, and the mysterious Mrs. Coulter invites Lyra to accompany her on an Arctic expedition.

I’m not really sure what I thought of The Golden Compass. I remember tearing through the books about half a dozen summers ago or so, and liking them rather well, even though my memory of what actually happened in these novels is somewhat dim. So to see this movie, which as far as I can tell obviously and necessarily has been dumbed down a bit (movies don’t really allow for as many complexities as novels), was a little weird.

The exposition felt a bit clumsy. Most of it was done through dialogue, of course, where each sequence of dialogue exposed information on one central concept, but little more. Regardless of how this was done in the novel (I really can’t remember), it felt less than realistic here. I can’t pinpoint exactly what made me feel like this, but… I still did.

The plot worked okay, but hardly more than can be expected, considering that this was relatively unoriginal stuff. The whole “intelligent, resourceful and charming child makes useful friends who help her fulfill her quest” has been done quite a few times before, so I won’t give the movie makers credit for managing not to bungling this up. I will, however, scowl a bit at the portrayal of travel — the most ludicris example being the time a panzer bear fell down from the sky and none of the Samojeds noticed a thing — as well as at how superficial the relationships between the characters seemed.

The acting was alright, I guess. But with all the great names this one had, that’s hardly a surprise. Not too impressed by Dakota Blue Richards, but then again, she did better than a whole lot of other kid actors I’ve seen.

Other than this, the music wasn’t quite to my liking (the ever-present and overly pathos-filled brass and strings), and the whole experience was undermined a bit by the theatre’s inability to focus their machinery properly.

All in all, I thought this was just the right side of mediocre, but hardly something I’ll bother to watch again.

6.5/10.