Download Film The Golden Compass 2 REPACK
Auden Koenig
BU Today: Why is The Golden Compass so controversial?
Freitas: Bill Donohue [president of the Catholic League] says the books will eradicate faith in kids. Donohue says that Pullman, in effect, kills God and challenges Church authority. So the Catholic League launched a campaign in October telling all Catholics to boycott the film and gave out a pamphlet attacking the stories. Focus on the Family has also told parents not to take their kids to the film.
Since the film was commissioned and even before shooting began religious groups were outraged, pegging \"The Golden Compass\" as a direct attack on organized religion, particularly Catholicism.
The film chronicles the adventures of young protagonist Lyra, played by newcomer Dakota Blue Richards, as she seeks to find her schoolyard friend who has been kidnapped by the Magisterium the name of the governing body of the fantasy world. The Magisterium's objective, we learn early on, is to rid all citizens of their free will.
While the religious connotations are probably too advanced for younger viewers to pick up on the supposed likeness of the Magisterium to the Catholic Church and the irony of its members having the ugliest of all the daemons to represent their true spirits critics and fans have launched into a heated debate over the film, which some believe should be boycotted.
Your assessment of the two films is over-all spot-on, I enjoyed them both a whole lot - along with that other recent fairytale movie, "Enchanted" - a Christmas Fantasy Triple! - but have to agree that in the final analysis Stardust is the superior "text"... your observations about the incongruity of Claire Danes' realistic acting with her ethereal character are inteersting but for me that really worked, she was a star who'd suddenly come "down to earth" literally and that's how she behaved, and of course I can't get enough of "Angela Chase"! Agree with you about De Niro's performance - not homophobic, and still amusing in spite of its badness, but nevertheless still pretty poor, and Michelle Pfeiffer outvamped both Nicole AND Susan Sarandon in "Enchanted"!
Tyrannical religious depictions aside, parents will undoubtedly be concerned over the portrayals of cruelty and violence. Lyra is in peril for most of this film, and is fearful of adults. Other scenes show children locked in steel cages while bolts of electricity attempt to separate them from their daemon. And when the battle begins to brew, people are killed with spears and guns as the situation in this already dark film begins to intensify.
The Golden Compass finds its way onto DVD in both a 16x9 widescreen (2.35:1) and 4x3 full screen version. Bonus extras include animated menus and some sneak previews of upcoming New Line Cinema films. Audio tracks are available in English Dolby Digital 5.1 EX Surround Sound, DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete Audio and English 2.0 Stereo Surround, with subtitles in English and Spanish.
Enjoyable: The Golden Compass sounded like it was going to be good but it did not live up to my expectations. It did have great special effects, which made the movie a lot easier to watch. Some of the scenes were pretty boring and hard to follow. It seemed like the film introduced new character in every scene. It was a distraction keeping track of all the different groups of people, who was on whose side, and why they were against the others. Overall, it was a decent movie with an interesting story and is worth seeing.
Yet the film's co-producer, Deborah Forte, said that in 12 years of being associated with the movie and the books, not one young reader has mentioned religion to her. Children love the story and the characters, she said.
"I think it's a tempest in a teapot," Forte said. "What we find interesting about our film is we've made this wonderful epic adventure story for families. ... We encourage parents to make their own decisions."
Other critiques have appeared on evangelical blogs and Web sites. Adam Holz of Focus on the Family, writing on the Christian ministry's Plugged In site, calls Pullman's books and the film a "deliberate attempt to foist his viciously anti-God beliefs upon his audience."
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office for Film and Broadcasting gave the film, which is rated PG-13, a warm review. The film is not blatantly anti-Catholic but a "generalized rejection of authoritarianism," it said.
Based on a novel by Philip Pullman of the same name, it's part one of a trilogy called "His Dark Materials." Read that again. This film is the first in a trilogy. So, much as in "Lord of the Rings," all the questions are not answered in the first film.
What does happen in this film is audiences are introduced to the unique world of Lyra Belacqua (played by newcomer Dakota Blue Richards). In this world everyone is paired with a daemon, an animal version of yourself that's basically a soul on the outside. Also, everyone is obsessed with Dust, which is some sort of material that seems to hold the mysteries of the world in it.
Orphaned at birth, Lyra lives at Jordan College. There she's given a rare instrument called an alethiometer (the "golden compass" of the title). It can tell the truth about any situation. Once Lyra possesses the compass, she sets off on a journey to save her friend Roger, who has mysteriously been kidnapped along with many other kids.
Don't let the trailers fool you, though. Action scenes like those are few and far between. The film is as dense a family film as has been released in a while, so unless you've read the books, there's sure to be some confusion. Stick with it and it's pretty entertaining though.
After overhearing a conversation between Lord Asriel and the board of Jordan College about Dust and its mysterious workings, the beautiful Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman) arrives to take Lyra from the confines of Jordan College. Before she leaves, however, the Master of Jordan College (Jack Shepherd) gives Lyra an alethiometer, also known as a golden compass, which is used to distinguish the truth from lies.
The film does many things well; the design of Jordan College, Svalbard (a kingdom of armored polar bears) and Bollvangar are all depicted exactly as the book describes. The CGI of the daemons is charming and funny and captures the human essence that a daemon is supposed to represent.
Richards does a fantastic job in her first acting production, especially considering that nearly 90 percent of her scenes involve CGI. Kidman delivers another standout performance as the deliciously evil Coulter; the other big stars that the marketing relied on - Daniel Craig, Eva Green as the witch Serafina Pekkala and Sam Elliott as the cowboy aeronaut Lee Scoresby - are only in the film for five minutes each.
The film suffers from its mission: taking an incredibly complex story with multiple fantastical elements and squeezing it into a running time of less than two hours. Therefore, the portion of the audience who hasn't read the books leaves feeling confused and without a full understanding of the purpose of daemons or what Dust really is. On the other hand, those who have read the books are happy that the story was adapted to the screen with little changes made - except the entire ending - but are disappointed with the emphasis on action rather than the story.
The film is fun to watch due to its mix of humor, love, friendship and suspense. Many scenes in this film are dark, showing that this movie is not just made for children. Fans of the trilogy will enjoy the film, if only to support the next two books being adapted to the screen to give Pullman's works a chance of being more accurately represented in a second and third movie.
Like Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter, the hero, or in this case heroine, is an orphan. Perhaps we can blame Walt Disney for this. The filmmaker had a habit of making sure his main character either had no parents or has one or both killed. Hello, "Bambi."
While originality clearly isn't a strongpoint of "Compass," it's unlikely young filmgoers or fans of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" novels will care. Just bring on the special effects, the parallel worlds, the evil Magisterium and the fighting polar bears.
In "Compass," the protagonist is 12-year-old Lyra Belacqua played by newcomer Dakota Blue Richards, not to be confused with Massachusetts Purple Richards. When the film opens, Lyra lives on the campus of an upper crusty British university with her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig). She's enjoying life with her friends, specifically Roger (Ben Walker). The fun stops when Roger gets kidnapped, and Lyra goes searching for him. In the meantime, Lord Asriel has headed north in search of dust, which could connect the aforementioned parallel worlds. The Magisterium, an organization with a penchant for totalitarianism, wants to stop him.
While you don't need a divinity degree to see the Magisterium as an unflattering portrayal of the Catholic Church, the film doesn't shove its anti-religious themes down the viewers' throats. It's more subtext than blatant Catholic bashing. Young moviegoers will more than likely see the Magisterium as the Galactic Empire garbed in robes.
The film's Darth Vader is none other than, yikes, Nicole Kidman. She plays Marisa Coulter, the Magisterium's hatchet woman who has designs on Lyra and the golden compass she's been given. The device tells the truth and we all know how dangerous the truth can be. As a villain, Kidman turns her cold beauty into glacial malevolence. Her entrance in a skin-tight dress should send fan boys into hyper-drool.
Writer-director Chris Weitz of "American Pie" fame has created a film that's beautiful to look at but lacking in emotional depth. It's the cinematic equivalent of a home with a gorgeous exterior but devoid of any furniture inside. Who would want to live there?
If you're looking for any humor to break up the film's seriousness, it's in short supply. As with most mediocre fantasy films, CGI effects dominate the proceedings with the characters playing second fiddle. Richards won't draw any comparisons to Jodie Foster as a great child actress. As for the adult actors, they don't get much to do, especially Craig whose screen time probably doesn't surpass five minutes. Simon McBurney, as a duplicitous Magisterium official, at least wears his wickedness well.
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