The Golden Compass [Blu-ray] [2007]

See Larger Image	List Price: £29.99 Our Price: £13.98 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1 to 3 weeks Manufacturer: Entertainment in Video Starring: Nicole Kidman, Eva Green, Ben Walker, Daniel Craig, Clare Higgins Average Customer Rating:


Audience Rating: Parental Guidance Binding: Blu-ray EAN: 5017239150838 Format: Box set Label: Entertainment in Video Manufacturer: Entertainment in Video Number Of Items: 2 Publisher: Entertainment in Video Release Date: 2008-04-28 Running Time: 109 Studio: Entertainment in Video Theatrical Release Date: 2007
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Editorial Reviews: Nicole Kidman, Eva Green, Ben Walker, Daniel Craig, Clare Higgins
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Golden Compass- Blu-Ray Comment: 'The Golden Compass' is a good family, fantasy adventure and starts off being very promising. The children actors aren't too bad to watch, Kidman is very good, the various plot elements were intriguing and the effects were of good standard. This had a great cast of both on screen actors, as well as voice over actors and the costumes and sets were pretty impressive. I enjoyed the film most of the way through until I reached the ending which left so much unresolved and set itself up for a sequel. It was SO frustrating to end a film like this that it coloured my overall feelings towards the entire film. I like trilogy type films and those that spread a story over many sequels, but I also like each separate film to be resolved enough to leave you feeling satisfied with two hours viewing and intrigued to find out what will happen next. This left me with none of that. It is a shame that what seemed to be a good film, with a good premise and well directed and acted, shot itself in the foot in such a way. This is worth a viewing if you like fantasy adventure films, but just be aware that you'll have to expect a sequel to resolve the story. Customer Rating: Summary: Is this Philip Pullman's Northern Lights ? Comment: Philip Pullman's Northern Lights is a wonderfully written book. Packed with great imagination and depth. The characters, particularly Lyra's are well thought out and have a richness about them. The story line is challenging and in many parts takes a different path, than you're expecting. It takes on contentious issues cleverly and weaves a magical and dark storyline out of them. Not since Tolkien's Trilogy has there been a series of fantasy books that have been acheing to be put on the silver screen. Then the first film arrives, with it's American book title name 'The Golden Compass'. Visually the film is stunning especially on Blu Ray and if it was a Walt Disney film we'd all say aaaaww great swash buckling action. But it's not it's suppose to be the reproduction of a masterpiece of fantasy. Is it possible to betray a book more than the film makers have done here, I think NOT !! All the parts of the storyline that really gave this book a real edge and made it stand out from the rest have been omitted. A gourmet meal turned into a happy meal. The storyline loosely ( and that's being kind )follows the book. The film ignores the end of the book completely and rounds off any sharp edges that I'm sure they thought might damage the rating. Director Chris Weitz, you should hang your head in Shame.I can't help wonder why you didn't stick to directing films like Antz and American Pie and let someone like Peter Jackson breath life into this book. And Philip Pullman how could you stand back and watch them do this to your wonderful book. The only hope is that Weitz strayed that far from the storyline he can't possibly make the second book and they'll have to remake The Golden Compass' again. Devotees of Pullman must have physically wept when they saw this Disney style adaption. Customer Rating: Summary: Movie: 2/5 Picture Quality: 3~4/5 Sound Quality: 4/5 Extras: 4/5 Comment: Version: U.S.A / Region A VC-1 BD-50 Running time: 1:53:17 Disc size: 48,426,421,480 bytes Movie size: 25,958,633,472 bytes Average Video Bit Rate: 22.63 Mbps DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 24-bit (BonusView) PiP Secondary Encode VC-1 Movie size: 21,609,013,248 DTS 5.1 1509Kbps 24-bit Contains moderate to heavy application of Digital Video Noise Reduction (DNR) Customer Rating: Summary: The names were changed to protect the innocent Comment: Come to think if it the whole story is about protecting the innocent. Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) was raised relatively unsupervised which lead to a wild child hood of mock-wars and mischievousness. An excellent liar who saves her from many situations, she may someday find her assets are liabilities. A chance visit by her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), will change her life for ever. Well movies can not be the book and many times for brevity speeches are cut and locations are rearranged (from a 400 page book to a 110 page script.) But you have to draw the line some where. Unfortunately this is one of those times where they left the action in and changed the story form a multifaceted mystery to a black and white good guy vs. bad guy. We may as well have been watching Saturday afternoon cowboys with black and white hats. Some of the facets were skillfully woven into the non-verbal part of the film with the hope that you read the book and know what is happening. Still the focus switched from a coming of age story to free the slaves and what not. And what is with introducing a bad guy from the next installment to an earlier scene at Jordan collage that masking the turmoil of conciseness at the college? I do agree that the movie needed to stop short of the cliffhanger end of the book. Let us see what happens when Lyra brings her father what he needs. On the plus side, the costumes and props were excellent. The CGI did not overwhelm the story. Daemons knew their place. The music matched the scenes and did not overwhelm the dialog. They did a great job of choosing the actors. We can hope they will be around for "The Subtle Knife" (2009)." Nicole Kidman made a perfect Mrs. Coulter and the added scene where she slaps her monkey give hope to becoming more complex character. The voice of Iorek Byrnison (name changed) is Ian McKellen of "The Da Vinci Code" fame. Well with any luck things may straighten out by the next installment. ----------------------------------------------------- The Blu-ray comes with a bonus disk that has more footage on it than the movie its self. Watching this dark material and re-watching the film may give more insight to the story. Customer Rating: Summary: Even worse then the narnia spoof Comment: The trailer looked great and I had high hopes for this movie. Especially after seeing stardust. But this is a hopeless childish movie, produced for another braindead generation that thinks over the top means big bucks. Too bad, they got a good cast, great sets but really poor directing. And it is missing the sense of fun and wit Stardust had so much of. Absolutely no joy to watch. More Reviews