The Golden Compass

** Stars

In a nutshell, The Golden Compass is a major disappointment, filled with bloated action cliches and underwritten characters. Do not be fooled by the trailers, Nicole Kidman's and Daniel Craig's talent are wasted. Both are reduced to the most limited screen time I have ever seen leads get.

Rather than letting us escape into the world of these characters, director Chris Weitz reduces it to a lecture of how the audience should think. In the very beginning, Eva Green plays a witch whose character tells us that there is another world where people's souls are actually demons (shaped like animals who are always by there side). We're not shown, we're told. In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, we're given a background of the ring's history and what it had gone through. We're not given a back story but rather an idea that there are other worlds that have very different life styles.

A young girl named Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) is caught between two worlds when she is found discussing something she shouldn't know. She learns of the term dust and how it could be a portal to another world. But there are certain people who do not want this to happen. Nicole Kidman plays Marisa Coulter, a woman apart who tricks the child into believing that she will take her on an adventure. Lyra soon discovers that she is up to something much worse.

I have to ad that it is almost impossible to ad Daniel Craig to the plot summary of this film. He is in it for almost ten minutes. He plays Lyra's uncle who journeys to find the link between the universes. The problem is that they don't show his adventure, only the idea of it. Hell, even Kidman is wasted and is waiting around for the plot to come back to her character.

There are some scenes filled with exciting moments. Kidman owns every seen she is in, bringing the ruthlessness to a very dark villain. Her seduction to the child is interesting. What child wouldn't want to go on an adventure with a beautiful smooth-talking Nicole Kidman? There is also a climatic fight between two polar bears that is visually stunning.

The film is based of the novel by Philip Pullman, whose controversial subject has drawn several Christian groups claiming that the book encourages children to practice atheism. I haven't read the novel, but the film adaptation does bring an idea that there is an evil religious empire brainwashing children to believe in their ideas. The problem with The Golden Compass is that the ideas are uncertain and the empire is left somewhat clueless, therefore we are left with a sense of emptiness. The ending is so abrupt that I actually thought the film was missing a real. We are left with an ending without an ending.

The Golden Compass is New Line's biggest risk since LOTR ($180 Million) and it doesn't even come close to that kind of quality. Even with each chapter of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, we were left with an inner conclusion of the part of the story. Characters were still journeying to destroy the ring, but the moments were wrapped wonderfully for each scene of each film. In this film, we are left with a reason to see a sequel just for the sake of seeing it, one that probably won't even be made (the film only opened to $25.7 million). Only time will tell, not that anyone is really anticipating it.