The first strange thing about the Golden Compass was that I found the movie after hearing the news about the game of the same title.

The second strange thing was that I went into the theater expecting my jaw to drop to the floor on account of spine tingling scenes of which I had a taste after I first viewed the trailer. Needles to say, the experience was not exactly like I expected it but it’s nothing I can hold too big of a grudge against either.

After all, I have come to expect less and less from movie franchises based on relatively famous or even totally obscure fantasy novels or series of novels. It’s probably a growing trend after the “Lord of The Rings” and “Harry Potter” phenomenons, with only one catch… the franchises mentioned above actually succeeded. Even so, “The Golden Compass” was given a head start in my book on account of the pleasant surprise that was conveyed to me by “Stardust”, a fantasy movie I will most likely never forget… which is not the same I can say about the movie being currently reviewed.

It had potential, that is true. I mean what movie that rounds up such glamorous or otherwise awe inspiring figures such as Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee, could actually fail in delivering an experience that is at least majestic if not downright maddening? Well… in that sense “The Golden Compass” does in fact fail. The experience is not majestic, and that is to say the least. The action sometimes feels like it drags on and tries to cloud the mind of the viewer through the use of a lot of fancy and fantasy related terms, names and locations that don’t even sound right in the end, while at other times it seems as if the director pressed the fast forward button when fine-tuning his greatest masterpiece. The movie/director can’t even make up its mind as to what sort of category it wants to appeal to. At some points it feels like a fairy tale or a bed-time story, while at other times it just changes to being scary, brutal or downright shocking for the 3 and a half year old child sitting next to you with his eyes the size of onions as he looks frightened at the screen right at the moment when the jaw of one of the creatures on screen is literally torn off…

Taken piece by piece it has its good moments, and it has its bad moments, but as a general experience it’s neither horrid, nor a glaring masterpiece of modern (or otherwise fantastic) times. The great potential it had ends up turning into the Dust it so redundantly mentions during the course of the movie. One thing I have to point out however is that the movie is vastly improved by the performance of the stars I mentioned before, as well as the epic soundtrack it so greatly displays.

Another aspect would be the visual side, where special effects are used for every non human creature prancing, hoping, flying, pouncing, beating, biting, roaring out there on the cinema screen. While this is not a bad thing it gives an enhanced feeling of artificiality that the movie does not need at certain points.

However flawed it may be, the movie is still pretty good and i can only hope that the next installments (”The Northern Nights”, the book on which “The Golden Compass” is based, is part of a trilogy) will rise up to my grotesque expectations (yes I am very picky when it comes to movies).