not as strange as calling "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" a multi-Academy Award-winning film.

THE GOLDEN COMPASS - 6/10 (B-)

This was pretty good. Nicole Kidman was fabulous and I liked her character, which is simply because Nicole rocks. I would have crossed over to the dark side for her. I didn't find the movie anti-religious at all, and parents not letting their kids watch it because of that alone is ridiculous since they wouldn't pick anything like that up from it. Anything that could be seen as remotely anti-religious is stuff that would be over the heads of most kids anyway.

I hate that the controversy killed this at the Box Office (it would have done better without it for sure - working at a video store I've heard so many people who are iffy about watching it because of what they've heard, and some won't watch it at all). I would have liked this to be a series, and it's clearly a set-up for one, but the odds of it becoming one now are highly unlikely.

Fanatic Christians are experts at judging something before they even see it. I'm sure it's something Jesus would be proud of.

Shouldn't be long now till they announce the sequels!

The Christian zealots did their best to try and sink this franchise, and they did a pretty good job of building negative buzz in North America by buying bad reviews from the corporate media. Fortunately, it made 82% of it's BO overseas with a worldwide total of almost $400 million, plus it will find an appreciative audience on DVD, so the sequels are a certainty.

I can't wait for the next exciting entry in this future classic movie series...

Have faith - - the Magisterium will yet be defeated!

So, you admit that the Americans suck..

Believe it or not..

This movie haven't been released here yet..

It's coming out next week..

Even though it was such a hit worldwide I'm not convinced we'll see more in this series, though I hope we do.

I've just seen it. And IN THEATER. Yes, we just got it last Wednesday.

Despite solidly acted and technically impressively made (which helps a lot for fantasy sucker like me), it's a bit boring. Mainly, because not much happened. And what was major focused in this movie, wasn't interesting at all. And it certainly has major issue with pacing. But the story (not the script, the story) is very interesting. It's interesting enough so that I don't really care if I didn't like The Golden Compass; I want its sequels!

So, I guess, it wasn't so bad as a set-up.

B-

IMO, it's better than the first Narnia (C+) which, while as good (~boring) as this one is, has far less interesting storyline

Narnia's disappointment has me worried, but I think its incredible overseas outing and solid DVD sales will convince New Line (or, I guess not...whoever distributes it next) to go through with another one (meaning two).

it's WB..

please please do the sequels.. the storyline is sooo interesting..

Even though the first film was mediocre I'd like to see the sequels too. I mean obviously, a real ending for The Golden Compass was shot (seen in trailers), so I'd at least like to see that.

B-, and I agree here.

What the hell was up with this movie. 90% there: great costumes, nice cgi, pretty good visuals....why not just wrap up the last 10% of a good movie? Script and timing? Like, you already paid so much for lavish production, would it have killed you to put a couple hundred thousand down for some quality screenwriters and film editors?

Got only about an hour into the movie. Despite its visuals, I was so bored I just stopped watching and popped in good 'ol Fellowship of the Rings instead.

New Line butchered the ending, and screwed up the editing. The original ending had been shot, it was shown in trailers.

I think the mythology was quite irrational. In other words not every universe can exist; it depends on its rules. The relationship regarding the children and their animals was never explained and I'm not sure it could be (among other things).

Is most mythology rational? In any event, the film/book took the multiple universes as materialistic/real, so mythology is not an apt word. As to your second sentence, I do not know what you mean.

I did not like the movie and very much enjoyed the books.

The Golden Compass

I could have turned this off after 24 minutes, but I stuck it out until the end. I've watched it all now, and I could not for the life of me explain what it's about. It's a mess. There's Lyra, who has been given an Allethiometer which can see the truth, a polar bear that wants a demon but hasn't got one, the Maginarium, dust, demons, 'gyptians, witches, and Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman ... but I still have no idea what the central story is. It's all just shit, and so unbelievably boring. The film has such arrogance to just assume that everyone knows who these characters and what the story is (even though I did read the story in school, I still have no idea what it's all about).

The only good things in the film are when the polar bear kills that other polar bear by taking out his jaw, and when the polar bear says "you want to ride me?" to Lyra, the 12 year old girl (hehe). Apart from that it's just a bland fantasy "epic" blockbuster with all the cliches rolled into one film. It's like a little girl version of a proper fantasy blockbuster. With dreadful CGI. So flat. With awful dialogue not written for the screen but read out directly from the book. The nail in the coffin is the age-old indicator for a crap film; the line "what is this place?".

D

And this shockingly won Best Visual effects against Transformers (!) and AWE (Davy Jones)

lol. Incredible misjudgment by the Academy.