Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
12/2/07
We live in an entertainment
age of anticipation, when spoilers are as important as the TV shows whose
progress they predict, speculation about what films might be made makes
headlines over those currently in theaters and you're more likely to see
a teaser trailer for one of next summer's movies than the ones coming out
next week. So it should come as no surprise that our entertainment
itself is increasingly serialized, forever laying out breadcrumbs of information
to debate and promises of future closure which (as X-Files and Sopranos
fans can tell you) are rarely realized. But when they are, it can
be magic, as in the Lord of the Rings trilogy or that sensational
TV/movie hybrid that was Firefly/Serenity. So we keep
coming back to TV Losts and would-be movie trilogies hoping they
ultimately deliver the goods. But like trying to review a movie after
its' first 40 minutes, how is one to accurately judge the likes of The
Golden Compass, the new Chris Weitz film version of the first book
from Phillip Pullman's beloved His Dark Materials trilogy (unread
by me; memo to self: make New Year's Resolution to read more)?
Sit back and enjoy the ride, I suppose, a ride which at this point is a
bit overcrowded and a tad mechanical, but at its' heart, intriguing as
all get-out.
There are, we're told, an
endless series of parallel universes, separated yet linked by something
called “Dust”. In one of them, Scholar Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig)
has taken a shocking photograph in the arctic, showing another world visible
in the Northern Lights and Dust flowing down from them and into the man
in the picture. He seeks funding for an expedition to cross over
into that world at Jordan College where his young Niece Lyra Belaccqua
(Dakota Blue Richards) is a ward. His plan is relentlessly opposed
by The Magisterium, the totalitarian body which rules this world and “tells
people what to do”, but he sets off anyway. Left behind, Lyra is
befriended by Magisterium member Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman), who proposes
to bring her along on her own trip to the North. The College's Master (Jack
Shepherd) reluctantly agrees, but passes Lyra something she Was Meant to
Have: an alethiometer. What, you might ask, is an alethiometer?
Try to keep up: it's a “Golden Compass,” a device which, when properly
read, points you to The Truth the same way a regular compass points North,
South, East & West. The Magisterium, being no fans of the truth,
thought they had them all destroyed, but one remains and it will guide
young Lyra on her quest to discover the whereabouts of dozens of children
kidnapped by “Gobblers”. Along the way, she'll meet Aeronaut Lee
Scoresby (Sam Elliott), Witch Serafina Pekkala (Eva Green), and an Armored
Bear named Iorek Byrnison (voice of Ian McKellan).
There are a lot more Bears
where he came from, along with a Magisterium chain of command that leads
all the way to Christopher Lee, a clan of oppressed people called Gyptians,
and an animal incarnation (a Daemon) of the spirit of every single character
that follows them around. It is literally all The Golden Compass
can do in a shade under two hours to give you a quick tour of this fantasy
world and all its' many players. For this reason, the plot at times
resembles a board game: Go find A, who'll tell you where you can
meet B, who'll tell you the whereabouts of C. And why? Well,
we can't very well have the next two movies (for the record, The Subtle
Knife and The Amber Spyglass would be the final two chapters)
if we don't know everybody!
What makes The Golden
Compass worth watching is that while not much of interest happens in
it, this is a fantasy world well worth immersing yourself in. Let's
start with the Daemons: literally the soul of their companions in
an external animal form, they provide constant companionship and a glaring
weakness for each human character: when the Daemon is attacked, their
human feels the same pain, and when the human dies, the Daemon explodes
in a shower of golden sparks (“Dust”, perhaps?), the most cinematic method
of death since Highlander introduced us to The Quickening.
There are many delightful characters among the Daemons, starting with Lyra's
companion Pantalaimon (voice of Freddie Highmore). Children's Daemons
are not locked into any one form the way adults' are, and “Pan”, as she
calls him, shifts back and forth between ferret, bird and cat during the
story. Scoresby is accompanied by a jackrabbit named Hester (Kathy
Bates), and Mrs. Coulter has a peculiarly abusive relationship with the
vicious monkey that houses her soul. Most of the Magisterium members,
no surprise, are joined by some sort of insect.
Then there are the performances,
better than average for this sort of fantasy enterprise. Richards,
making her acting debut after winning the role in an open casting call,
is a real find. Not only is she totally natural and not even remotely
cutesy, but she holds the screen convincingly with both adult stars and
CGI critters. Elliot and Green do a good job with the hardest part
of these fantasy roles: they seem really comfortable and happy being
respectively, an Aeronaut and a Witch. McKellen, Highmore and Bates
lead a strong vocal cast for the Daemons, who've been encouraged to add
animalistic inflections to their voices and not simply make vocal star
turns. Craig is mostly just marking time until his cool stuff arrives
in later books, but has appropriately scholarly bearing. Best of
all is Kidman: icy cool, charmingly sadistic and an utter fiend in
a flawless wardrobe. I particularly enjoyed one moment where she
announces to a room full of Magisterium scientists that one character is
to be put to death, notes their shocked reactions and excuses herself with
a little “Hmmm, I thought you'd think that was cool” shrug. The Magisterium
itself, while I'm told it's been toned down from Pullman's vision and stripped
of its' anti-religious specificity, makes a nice smug seat of ubiquitously
evil power, particularly in the non-too subtle metaphor of what the Gobblers
seek to do to the missing children.
I expect good acting in a
Chris Weitz film, having really admired the performances in About a
Boy and In Good Company and being one of the few who was on
the crazy wavelength of his last movie, American Dreamz. However,
his transition to FX extravaganza-land has not been entirely smooth.
The film's action feels oddly preordained, with the rhythm of characters
swooping in to save others at the precise moment of their immanent demise
like dance steps rather than mortal peril. And with a great deal
of the second half taking place at night, Weitz and his cinematographer
Henry Braham have opted for a muddy color scheme that washes out some of
the thrills of the climactic action. All in all, the movie seems
to be in a hurry to do its' business and get out, and I'm not surprised
to find that the abrupt finish ends three chapters before the book does
(it seems that this material was shot, but will end up in The Subtle
Knife, should it ever be made). Weitz's screenplay is competent
but not up to his usual level. Of course, it's hard to say whether
to blame him, the source material or the genre itself for things like the
constant irritating need of characters to call each other by their full
names (what I wouldn't give for Serafina Pekkala to tell Lyra “Please,
call me Serafina.”).
So, at the end of the day,
what does The Golden Compass do? It sets up its' board, identifies
each piece as it lines them up, and asks a few opening questions (Just
what IS “Dust” and what can we make of the story Coulter tells Lyla about
how it ended up in the world? What is the prophecy in which Lyla
plays a part? And what will Asriel find on the other side of the
Northern Lights?). Whether the act of having these characters introduced
and questions asked will prove worthwhile in the long run depends on what
is to come in The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass...
(all together now) should they ever be made. For what it is, it's
an entertaining invitation to future adventures. Nothing less, nothing
more. |
