To the cinema : The Golden Compass

When I first saw the trailer of "The Golden Compass", I told the husband that we are so going to catch this movie when it opens. I'm not a frequent movie-goer and certainly a fantasy movie such as this is not really my cup of tea. But somehow, I got the urge to watch this movie. Maybe it's because of that big polar bear in armour, or the way the trailer portrayed this movie.

So, last evening, on impulse, we booked the tickets online at 6:30 p.m. for the evening show. I got to say that it was anticipation at 9:20 p.m., disappointment at 11:15 p.m.

Despite the cast of Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman, the movie didn't turned out as magical as I hoped it would be. No doubt there was witches, talking animals, flying ships, etc... I couldn't help but feel that the touch of "wow" factor for a fantasy show is missing.

One had to follow closely to the story to know what it was going on. The husband was a little lost halfway through and at the end of the movie, he thought it was just like LOTR. For me, I managed to follow the plot, but it was not "flowy" enough for me. Yes, there was a storyline, but it felt very detached, and a little rush. 114 minutes felt too short for such a movie that seemed to promise so much.

No doubt this is a movie, which on the first look, might seems suitable for the young. But I personally feel that if your child is not 12 years old and above, he/she will not be able to follow the story. There was too much talking, including the beginning when you got to listen carefully to the long explanation at the start of how there are many earths in parallel to one another, how each person had a daemon (in the form of an animal), why was it a bad thing for all the earths to connect, why it is bad for a certain kind of dust to reach their world, blah blah blah. There was also the use of big words, like, alethiometer (which is the compass), and I had absolutely no idea how to spell it.

The only plus point, for me, is the usage of the computer graphics. They were impressive and the polar bears and all the little daemons looked real. And that's all there is to it. It was not enough to draw me into that fantasy world, and did not make me feel like being part of it. The story-telling was not real enough to make that childish side of me to believe that there was such a world hidden secretly away somewhere.

Lastly, some trivia about the movie for you:

1. Dakota Blue Richards beat out more than 10,000 other girls for the role of Lyra.

2. The cast includes another Oscar winner and two more nominees, but they'll just be heard and not seen.

- Kathy Bates provides the voice for Hester, the hare (she spoke less than 8 lines)

- Kristin Scott Thomas voices Stelmaria, the snow leopard (she spoke less than 5 lines)

- Ian McKellen does the voice of Iorek Byrnison, the polar bear (he got the most lines)

(sources from Yahoo! Movie Guide)