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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rated by buyers PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Type of bind: DVD
Brand: Warner Brothers
EAN num: 0794043120435
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Label: New Line Home Video
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
Quantity: 2
Publishing house: New Line Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 29, 2008
Running Time: 113 minutes
Sale Popularity Level: 7023
Studio: New Line Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: December 07, 2007
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Description:
In a parallel universe where witches rule the skies and armoured bears are the bravest warriors, young Lyra Belacqua journeys from her home among the scholars at Oxford to the far North to save her best friend. Based on the very first book in the Carnegie Medal-winning series, His Dark Materials.
Amazon.com:
A fantasy epic with more than a passing resemblance to the Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia film franchises, The Golden Compass takes place in an alternate universe where each human's soul is embodied in a companion animal called a daemon. Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards), an orphan who's lived most of her life among the scholars at Oxford, is intrigued when her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), announces his plans to travel north to investigate the source of some mysterious particles called Dust. Lyra has little hope of following her uncle until a mysterious woman named Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman, at her most icily beautiful) asks Lyra to travel north as her personal assistant. All is not as it seems, however, and the disappearance of Lyra's friend Roger (Ben Walker) sets her on a dizzying adventure. She does have an alethiometer, or golden compass, that can help her see the truth, and a number of companions, including her shape-shifting daemon, Pantalaimion (voiced by Freddie Highmore of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), polar-bear warrior Iorek Byrnison (voiced by Ian McKellen), Texas aeronaut Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliott), and witch queen Serafina Pekkala (Craig's Casino Royale co-star, Eva Green). Even before its release, The Golden Compass was the subject of controversy over its perceived anti-religious themes. While it does involve an oppressive institution called the Magisterium, it's not overtly religious, particularly to a young viewer. The movie's PG-13 rating should be taken seriously, however. Suitable for an older audience than Narnia (though younger than The Lord of the Rings), it deals with complex concepts, violence (though largely bloodless) and implied death, children and animals in peril, and an unrelentingly ominous and unsettling mood.
Despite a few changes and rearrangements, the overall plot of the movie is remarkably faithful to its source material, the very first installment of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. It doesn't finish the book, however, and--much like The Fellowship of the Ring did--leaves the viewer hanging in anticipation of the subsequent film, The Subtle Knife, due in 2009. So even though The Golden Compass is impressive--especially with its spot-on cast and terrific visual effects--we probably won't know its full emotional impact until the story is complete. --David Horiuchi
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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I was so intrigued by this movie that I'm buying it in Blu-Ray. I think it's worth it. Even though I have not read the Pullman books, I agree with other reviewers that the story is about the power of free will over fascism. It is a much more spiritual story than many may perceive. No need to get too intellectual, though. The polar bear warriors are worth buying the movie, and that's all I need to say.
Rated by buyers -
I have no problem with a bit of a specific (*Lacanian*) strain of Freudian psychoanalytical theory invoked in cinema. Seems to me *the dust* denotes *object (petit) a* - *a* stands for *other* (Fr. autre). It is *the object-cause of desire*. The *object (petit) a* is actually both the cause of desire the final reserve of libido. Since it also denotes a surplus enjoyment (Fr. plus-de-jouir), it is no wonder that *Church*(at least officially) is against it. Not a big deal.
I have a problem though, as one blogger pointed out, with the *evil Russians* or *evil Tatars* who are portrayed running some kind of a nightmarish *kids-only Gulag* installation on Spitsbergen. You dress them all like Rasputin; let them speak a bit of Russian and voilà - ready-to-wear agent of evil. I mean, seriously enough already with stereotypes.
Rated by buyers 
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I've never read the original books by author Philip Pullman, but I heard much about them leading up to the release of this much anticipated film adaptation. One of the things I hate most about such pre-hype for a film like this is that you can't help but form biased opinions about the sucess or failure of the project even though you've yet to see it with your own eyes. Given that the original books were written as an expression of Mr. Pullman's atheist beliefs, which though I disagree with, I have the utmost respect for, and having heard that the movie had been changed to downplay that particular angle, I was afraid that what would be left would be a watered down, generic fantasy with a lot of special effects and action but little or no depth. So I'm happy to say that when I finally saw this film the other night, I was pleasantly surprised.
First off, one of the gripes I do have with the film is that I'm not sure that it ever really provides the audience with a full understanding of what's at stake. We quickly learn that on this world, daemons are living, physical manifestations of a person's soul that walk alongside their human counterparts, appearing in animal form. There is also reference to Dust, which is believed to connect this world with the many other parallel worlds out there, and which is somehow related to why a child's daemon can change form at will but an adult's cannot. Lord Asriel, played in the film by current James Bond star Daniel Craig, believes that he can use this discovery as a way to travel between worlds. Meanwhile, Mrs. Coulter, portrayed in a wonderfully scary way by Nicole Kidman, represents the Magisterium, an organization that seeks to, for some unexplained reason, control people through their beliefs. The Magisterium also has been kidnapping children in an evil plot involving the children's daemons. Lyra, portrayed by Dakota Blue Richards, is Lord Asriel's niece, an orphan being raised at Oxford, who is given a device which is capable of discerning the truth of things. Lyra, along with her alethiometer, or golden compass, proves to be a child prophesied long ago who will ultimately determine the future of everyone.
While I can sort of fill in the gaps on my own, I never felt satisfied that I had been given a firm explanation for the Magisterium and the full implications of their plan. I suspect that this is the point where the removal of any anti-religious content may have left a gap in the story, a missing piece that was left ambiguous rather than filling it with something contrived. That absence, along with parts of the story early on that felt a bit rushed, keep me from giving the story 5 stars. But it is beautiful visually, in some ways even more so than Lord of the Rings. The story is certainly more than exciting enough for the young and young at heart, and if you pay close attention, even with the missing allusions to the books original undercurrent, you can sense the message is still there, and I felt that was a very big plus.
I will definitely be looking forward to the anticipated second film in the trilogy, and I think once you've seen it, so will you.
- Gregory Bernard Banks, author of The Summoner, and other books
Rated by buyers -
I loved this film. I just watched it and thought it was a great fantasy adventure and it's a great family film. "The Golden Compass" is about a young girl named Lara who lives in a magical world filled with animals that have demons in them and witches fly the dark sky and animals talk and pirates roam the sea. Lara meets a wicked blond woman played by Nicole Kidman who takes her back with her to her place. The woman traps Lara there and tries to get her to do what she wants. Lara is smart enough to figure out something is going on and escapes with her animal demon a cute cat. Lara meets some strange expectians on a ship and goes with them. Lara has the Golden Compass, something which Nicole wants. It can tell truth from lies and show Lara things. Lara protects it with her life. She meets a polar bear who is a warrior and he helps her. She travels on his back across the cold North, where polar bears roam and where they keep inoccent children at a horrible place where they try to seperate children from their animal demons. Lara finds this awful, since she believes they shouldn't do that. She tries to rescue the kids and animals and runs into trouble and Nicole. Nicole explains why they're hurting the kids but Lara refuses to listen to her until Nicole tells lara that she's her mother. Lara is shocked, but gets away at the end and destroys the place and frees the kids and a war goes on with the witches, polar bears and animals. Lara and her best friend go to free her father at the end and with some friends, save the day. I love this movie. It's very magical and cool. It's a great fantasy film. I love the special effects and the witches traveling through the night sky. So cool! I love Lara played by Dakota Blue Richards. I felt she was a strong female role model. She was a good person and a smart, amazing 12-year-old girl who was intelligent and talented and special. She believed in herself and wanted to help others and by doing so saved a lot of incoent people. Nicole Kidman was a witch, something which she is good at. She played a good witch much like Glenda in "Pratical Magic," but here she is like the Wicked Witch of the North in that the woman she plays is both coy and ugly and evil. She wants things to happen to kids that are wrong and it never explains why. Freddie Highmore voices an animal. I think it's Lara's demon but I can't be sure. Look, this movie isn't anti-relaglious or something. It has nothing to do with that. The story is fiction and fantasy and it's just like saying Harry Potter is evil or whatever. Everyone thinks this way. It's not true. Harry Potter and the Golden Compass are just fun and cool stories and not anti-that. So there. I loved this great movie and it's a good movie and it's called ACTING. I love Dakota Blue Richards, I felt she was the right one for this role.
Rated by buyers -
As I am sure many people, I am not a part of the breed of fans that have read the book and then hastily decided to check out the film. In fact, until this film arose, I had never heard of anything-called "The Golden Compass" so it is quite an interesting film. After all a film that stars both Daniel Craig and the wonderful Nicole Kidman, regardless of whether I've read the book or not I was going to see this film.
I have to be perfectly honest and tell you that although it was a good bit of fun with a very out there premise. Set in an alternate universe where, rather than a persons soul being encapsulated within their body it manifests itself as an animal form outside the body known as Daemons. The main character Lyra is fascinated by a presentation she accidentally stumbles upon by her uncle Asriel about mysterious particles known as Dust, which is apparently a way of transporting between universes.
Her uncle is due to travel North in search of these particles, but holding no hope of going with him, she is asked to travel north with a very mysterious woman known only as Mrs. Coulter as her personal assistant. During that time, she comes into possession of the mysterious Golden Compass, which allows her to see all truths along with her companions also such as her Daemon and a large ferocious polar bear.
Even before its release, thanks to the oppressive Magisterium in the film. The Golden Compass brought in unwanted controversy as it was believed that the Magisterium was a religious undertone relating to the Catholic Church. I suppose really that unless your child is extremely intelligent, that controversy and "message" means pretty much nothing to them.
Due to it being a high budget fantasy film it required a lot of CGI and let me be honest and say, sometimes it worked and sometimes it did not. In one of the ways it did not, work was the attempting interaction between the actors and their chosen daemon. It was especially apparent when Kidman's character hit her daemon and then attempted to apologise by hugging it. The mix between reality and CGI did work, but the faults were noticeable, but it is passable due to what it did achieve. The fight scene between a King bear and Lyras polar bear companion was also another way in which the CGI worked very well. The look of the bears was spot on and quite realistic at some points the fighting was intense and very attractive.
One of the best parts of the whole thing was the superbly frightening acting by Nicole Kidman. Her role as Mrs. Couter was something to be experienced and she really plays the role of a manipulative evil "ice queen" of sorts very well. Daniel Craig, although not a particularly prominent role, still managed to make the movie special and hold my interest. After all, I could not expect anything less as he is one of the reasons I decided to watch this in the very first place.
It was a wonderful fantasy film and about the only thing I have negative to say about it is in relation to the Daemons. From what I saw there seemed to be no explanation as to why the Daemons took the shape they did. Lyra's Daemon was that of a cat most of the time but took different shapes from time to time. Mrs. Couters Daemon was that of a golden monkey and Uncle Asriels was a tiger.
Other than that little discrepancy, there is honestly nothing to complain about with this picture.
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