Regisseur: Chris Weitz
Darsteller: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Blue Richards, Ben Walker, Freddie Highmore
Genre: Action & Adventure
Erscheinungsdatum: 2007   FSK: Parental Guidance
Länge: 109
Zusammenfassung: Perhaps it didn’t ignite the box office in quite the way it’d been hoped, but that’s little reason to pass over the qualities of "The Golden Compass" now it arrives on DVD. Based on the Phillip Pullman novel "His Dark Materials"--itself the start of the "Northern Lights" trilogy, the film isn’t without a few problems, but emerges as a quality adaptation.
And you certainly can’t fault "The Golden Compass" for sheer ambition. The story, for those new to the series, is primarily that of 12-year old Lyra, who is in search of her friend who has been kidnapped. Naturally, this proves to be quite a challenging adventure, not least because it’s through Pullman’s vividly imagined world, crossing dimensions as Lyra travels. The film, while toning down and fiddling with some elements of the source material, stays quite close to the book, and it proves to be a good, if not "Lord Of The Rings"-standard, adaptation.
What helps "The Golden Compass", on top of the strong effects work and scope of the production, is a solid cast, featuring the likes of Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman and Dakota Blue Richards. And it certainly whets the appetite for the next instalment in the series. Whether the muted box office returns put pay to that remains to be seen: for now, at least, "The Golden Compass" is a good, solid family movie that’s easy to enjoy. --"Jon Foster"