The Golden Compass December 10, 2007

BF and I watched the Golden Compass yesterday at Robinson’s Galleria in Ortigas. I originally wanted to watch in Greenhills because we still have a cellphone we need to sell but I got to pick him up around 2pm already. The screening was at 2:10pm in Greenhills and 2:30pm in Galleria. We weren’t able to withdraw extra money so we just had enough to pay for the tickets; really funny because we gathered all our coins and bought a regular drink, hehe.

I liked the movie. BF was kinda fidgety in some parts of the movie, though. When I asked him why he answered me that it was dragging and had a lot of ‘dialogues’. Where’s the action daw, haha! But he finally figured it out by himself that maybe since this is a trilogy it would need to establish it’s story first; it’ll have to describe the players first before it actually shows the ‘action scenes’.

Here’s a synopsis of the first installment of The Golden Compass - okay, I didn’t realize it would be so hard getting a summary of this. All that showed up after searching for it is about the controversies of the movie. It is being said that the author of the book is an Atheist and the story is how he’s making the church the antagonist in the story and how he’s like convincing the children to turn away from them.

I just copied the review a friend of mine did it is pretty much the version I want to put here.

Lyra Belacqua played by Dakota Blue Richards is an orphan living at Jordan College in an alternate universe. In this world, every person is accompanied by a daemon, which is a physical representation of their soul in animal form. In short, it was their animal counterpart. The young Lyra’s daemon is named Pantalaimon which manages to change his shape in any manner it wishes unlike those adult, matured daemons.

In one occasion, Lyra was introduced to Mrs. Coulter which was played by Nicole Kidman. Mrs. Coulter gave her the idea of going to a trip to the far north and offered her to become an assistant. Delighted with the idea, Lyra agreed. Before she left, however, the master gave her a strange golden instrument called an alethiometer, which is capable of telling the truth. The master, though, failed to illustrate how the thing works and instead warned Lyra to keep the instrument only to herself. [Photo of alethiometer on the right.]

After some time, Lyra realized that Mrs. Coulter was involved with the Magisterium’s General Oblation Board which will use children to investigate the intercession. Her friend, Billy Costa and Roger have been taken. She eventually fled the auspices of Mrs. Coulter and was rescued by the Gyptians.

During her travels with the Gyptians, Lyra learned how to ask the alethiometer pertinent questions and how to interpret its responses.

Upon arrival in Trollesund, Lyra meets Texan aeronaut Lee Scoresby played by Sam Elliot, who offered to help her but first he wants to get a friend out of trouble. His friend’s name is Yurek Byrnison, an armored ice bear. The bear was exiled from his home after losing a fight upon betrayal by Ragnar, the current king. [Photo of Lyra/ w Yuker Byrnison]

The bear — after several adventure with Lyra — went with the Gyptians to help Lyra bring back her friends to their respective families. Inside the experimental station, Lyra asks Roger to get the others ready to escape. She has to hide under a table almost immediately because the experimental station staff and Mrs. Coulter come in. However, she was captured by the staff and was placed in a device where children are separated from their daemons. The separation is almost complete when Mrs. Coulter, looking terrified, runs in and stops the procedure.

Outside the experimental station the children confront the guards. But the group of Lyra intervened and eventually won the battle.

Overall, I liked the movie and I got curious enough to wait for the next 2 installments and watch them.