The Golden Compass is a 2007 fantasy adventure film written and directed by Chris Weitz that is based on the 1995 novel Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, the first installment in Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. It stars Dakota Blue Richards as Lyra Belacqua, Nicole Kidman as Marisa Coulter, and Daniel Craig as Lord Asriel, alongside Sam Elliott, Ian McKellen, and Eva Green. In the film, Lyra joins a tribe of seafarers on a trip to the far North in search of children kidnapped by the Gobblers, a group supported by the universe’s rulers, the Magisterium.
via Wikipedia
On an alternate Earth, souls reside beside their humans in animal form and are able to converse. Lyra is living with her Uncle who’s off on another expedition to the North Pole so she’s sent to live with Marisa Coulter. Lyra has a mystical Golden Compass that points toward the truth.
While at Ms. Coulter’s place she learns how important the compass is, and what’s been going on with all the missing children. They’re being experimented on, an effort to remove their animal companions, by the Magisterium.
Lyra escapes and ventures out to find the missing children herself, allying herself with others in her quest. This follows the first book in the trilogy His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman, but this was the only movie produced from them. The books themselves are controversial for the warped portrayal of the Catholic Church as the Magisterium. The movie downplays this quite a bit, and I find it an enjoyable, if a bit dark.
My Rating: ★ ★ ★
Fellowship of Filming(s) 
3 thoughts on “The Golden Compass (2007)”