Extremely underrated fantasy flick. The most interesting part however is that it ends three chapters before the book ends. They clearly did this to make it a more positive experience for the average moviegoer but if you ever want to be surprised as shit, read the book til the end. It's insane what happens after Lyra and her friend get away from the facility

As I haven't read the books, this film slightly confused me, however I still found it enchanting and tried my best to keep up with the storyline.

Never read the books but makes me want to. Nicole Kidman was awesome and I love the effects.

Wish they had made the rest of the series

A very underrated adaptation.

Based on the award winning novel, The Golden Compass is an exciting and epic fantasy adventure. When a number of children are kidnapped by a mysterious group called the Gobblers, a young girl named Lyra embarks on a quest to find one of her missing friends and uncover the Gobblers’ fiendish plot. The film has a great cast that includes Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Eva Green, and Dakota Blue Richards; who does an excellent job at portraying the lead character of Lyra. There are some script issues, but overall the story is fairly well told. And, the special effects are quite good and create a unique magical world. While it’s not without its flaws, The Golden Compass is an entertaining film that’s full of thrills.

Good-looking movie with a great cast, however taking the time to view the series as well is well worth anyone's time.

Though the film was good they compressed to much into the film, loosing vital plot information. My suggestion would of been to have done a trilogy of some sort. I can see why this disappointed those who read the book. The Tv series does so much more for the book than film. The studio squandered an opportunity

Original locations and good mixing of scenes. The choice of the actors was crucial. Discours and expressions are natural. Estetical of the orses is ripetitive.

I just comment on the movie and not how it compares to the book.

I have seen it twice now and I must say both times I didn't think I wasted my time. Yes, the story jumps a bit and maybe half an hour more to get seeper into things might have helped. Still, I had no problem following. The references are pretty easy to understand I'd say. And the world design is great. The CGI look adequate for the time.

Their is a plethora of big names in this movie,some just giving their voices. But the focus clearly lies on the little girl. Since this was her first big production I'd say she did pretty good. I would've liked to see the rest of the movies but since this was a financial bust they were axed.

Another case of a movie not living up to its source material. But which movie really does ?

While, yes, this movie took some shortcuts with adapting the novel, such as [spoiler]combining a few (novel) characters into a single (movie) one[/spoiler], and [spoiler]eliminating the not-too-subtle (novel) dissing of the Catholic church[/spoiler], and [spoiler]rearranging a bit of the timeline with regard to the timing of the Panserbjorne-king encounter[/spoiler], the rest of the movie kept very much to the novel's plot outline. I thought that Nicole Kidman knocked it out of the park in her role.

I watched the movie first, then read the novel, then watched the movie again. Having watched the movie the first time without having read the novel, I will say that I was utterly confused about what dust was and what The Magesterium was, neither of which the movie did a good job explaining. Having then read the novel, I didn't understand why Pan and Lyra couldn't have exposited on these two elements. As such, I recommend a read-and-watch pairing as the novel helps to contextualize the movie.

An utterly garbage film. Even Nicole Kidman can't be seen at the end of the film. Only a body double.

_The Golden Compass_ suffers from trying to hit the "Trilogy Home Run" and never gets out of the batters box. I had a hard time grasping the foundation of the movie in the first 30 minutes because I was struggling with some of the thicker accents. The trailer sure makes you think that Daniel Craig is the star but he probably isn't even in the Top 10 in on-screen time. Sam Elliott has to be the coolest guy in this universe and any alternate ones discovered. I didn't see what all this religious bickering is about it. Perhaps if they had chosen a different word for a person's exterior soul instead of daemon people would not be so riled. This movie is heavy on CGI so if that is not your thing, stay away. Many of the same themes and battle type sequences are practically ripped from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is this strong banking on trilogy status by the producers of Compass that makes the ending suffer by moving key elements to a future installment that does not look like will be made

Really bad acted. The little girl is the worst actress ever. The visual effects are mediocre, the plot is thorough just because is adapted from the namesake book.