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The Golden Compass [Blu-ray] [2007] [US Import] [Region A]

Nicole Kidman , Dakota Blue Richards    Blu-ray
3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (199 customer reviews)
Price: £4.28
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Frequently Bought Together

The Golden Compass [Blu-ray] [2007] [US Import] [Region A] + The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray) [Region A & B] + Chronicles Of Narnia  - The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe/Prince Caspian [Blu-ray]
Price For All Three: £36.52

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Product details

  • Actors: Nicole Kidman, Dakota Blue Richards, Jim Carter, Tom Courtenay, Daniel Craig
  • Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Colour, Dolby, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
  • Language: English
  • Subtitles: English, Spanish
  • Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 2.35:1
  • Number of discs: 2
  • Classification: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) (US MPAA rating. See details.)
  • Studio: New Line Home Video
  • DVD Release Date: 29 April 2008
  • Run Time: 113 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (199 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00139XZF4
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 184,722 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)

Reviews

From Amazon.co.uk

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



Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 40 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars A quality HD transfer, shame about the movie 19 Jun 2008
By Vinman666 TOP 1000 REVIEWER
Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase
The high definition transfer to this Blu-ray disc is excellent: rich saturated colours and awesome levels of detail. Sound quality is equally good and although I don't have the ability to play the uncompressed DTS HD soundtrack the dynamic rangeis apparent even in standard stereo. In this respect it's one of the best Blu-ray discs I've seen so far.

That was the good news (and reason for the 3 stars); if only the conversion of book to movie had been even remotely as good. The special effects are very good and Lyra's Oxford is well realised; Mrs Coulter is also subtly played by the excellent Nicole Kidman and...unfortunately that's about as far as I can go with compliments.

The strengths of the book(s) are Philip Pullman's expert story-telling, allied to a complex - but accessible - plot and wonderful characters.
Of course condensing everything from the book to a 2 hour film would be impossible but what we are presented with is a series of action sequences linked by ham-fisted exposition. For example, the episode with Billy Costa (who has merged characters with Tony Macarios), once found separated from his Ratter, should emphasise the relationship between human and daemon and build the requisite tension to what is happening at Bolvangar but the opportunity is wasted. Then there is the pointless re-naming of Iofur Raknison to 'Ragnar' (one can just imagine the Focus Group brainstorming a generic scandinavian name: "Ooh I know, how about Ernest Borgnine's name in The Vikings!") and the weakening of Iorek Byrnison (why not rename him too: Erik the Ice Bear, anyone?) by having him (1) expelled from Svalbard as a coward and (2) almost killed and only just saved by Lee Scoresby. Iorek's character is supposed to be the practically indestructible rock that underpins Lyra's (and, later, Will's) resolve for what follows. Those are just 2 examples of many.

The removal of the true ending of the book from the film and the general watering down of the religious undertone sums up what many fans of the book feared would happen: Hollywood has chickened out (again). The bar for intelligent fantasy book transfers to film has been raised by Peter Jackson, and this movie falls woefully short of that level.

The BBC Cover to Cover talking book, read by Philip Pullman with a cast providing the dialogue, is vastly superior to the BBC Radio dramatisation (I've got both) but even the latter is better than the film. If you haven't read the books, I encourage you to do so - the film is passable in a Dark Crystal/Hawk the Slayer action-fantasy genre but the books have so much more depth.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Golden Compass- Blu-Ray 4 Jan 2009
By Spider Monkey HALL OF FAME TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Blu-ray
'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.

Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
First I must point out that before I saw this film I had already read, and hugely enjoyed, the original book, so I approached this film with a mixture of high hopes as well as concern about how Hollywood would treat Philip Pullman's work. To my relief, I can report that the transition to the big screen was, give or take a few compromises, a success.

The 'alternative Earth' world that Philip Pullman has superbly conceptualised is visually re-created in this film very convincingly. The weirdly futuristic yet slightly Victorian technology is conveyed very well via some impressive CG-enhanced cinematography and the daemons that accompany every human are also very realistic and show that no expense has been spared in reproducing this strange world. The cast is also top notch. Daniel Craig makes a great Lord Asriel, mixing authority and intelligence with a subtle charm. Nicole Kidman is also wonderful playing the sinister Mrs Coulter, flicking effortlessly between affability and damn right scariness. The exiled bear prince Iorek Byrnison is also very well portrayed, the CG rendering is top notch and, being voiced over by Ian McKellen, gives the character the right amount of gravitas.

Where the film works well is that it makes Pullman's story very accessible to anyone who hasn't read the book. In his book Pullman crams in an incredible amount of ideas, some of which are quite mysterious and don't get fully explained until later on in the book. Therefore the film makers chose to simplify some of these intricacies to make them more 'movie friendly'. So, for instance, the whole concept of what a daemon is gets explained very early on in the film so the viewer doesn't sit wondering why everyone walks around with their own talking animal. This is in contrast to the book, where deamons just exist, no simple explanation is given as to why people have these animals, and it's only through reading the whole book that you begin to understand the mysteries of these enigmatic creatures.

I know many Pullman fans have criticised the film's simplification of many of Pullman's ideas as dumbing down, but I think this is a little unfair. Without doubt some of the more involved subplots are only touched on in this film, giving the impression that some of it was a little rushed as the film makers tried to cram as much of the book as they could into a 2 hour film. For instance, the Bear King's infatuation with being human, as well as his usurping of Iorek, has far more significance and depth in the book than it does in this film. Also, in the film, the role of the Witches is quite understated and they're portrayed almost like 'guns for hire' to help Lyra and the Gyptians when needed. In the book, however, they have a very profound involvement in the story and very much hold the balance of power in the unfolding events.

But the biggest compromise is without doubt the point at which the film ends. I will not give anything away, other than to say the film ends at about three quarters of the way through the book. So the film gets denied the book's original climactic ending, and kind of just fizzles out. It really isn't a proper ending and I feel this definitely could have been handled better.

But generally the compromises do not detract from the fact that this film is very enjoyable and a great introduction to the fascinating world that Phillip Pullman has created. Admittedly this adaptation isn't perfect and many of the book's subtleties and intricacies have been lost. But as a fan of the book I'm just pleased such a wonderful story has been given the Hollywood treatment and allowed a whole new audience to discover its delights.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars too damaged to read, i threw it away !
i was counting on this dvd to entertain my nieces for at least an hour. we were up my cabin that did not yet have dishtv operating, we were stuck with nothing to watch disk was too... Read more
Published 14 hours ago by paige scates
5.0 out of 5 stars the golden compass dvd
i brought this childrens dvd for my self, i am age 53 years old i enjoyed this film ,this dvd is not just for children,any one can watch it, it came with quick delivery and well... Read more
Published 18 days ago by veronica arnold
5.0 out of 5 stars Worth watching again
Have to admit I was not a great fan of the film the first time I saw the film some years ago. But my sister liked it and so I bought the DVD as it was cheap and knew she would... Read more
Published 24 days ago by Lighthouse
5.0 out of 5 stars golden compass
great film ++ + + + + + = = + .. .. . . . . . . .
Published 26 days ago by Mrs. E. T. Williamson
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
My daughter loves this film and has watched it several times - probably because she's a little in love with Charlie Rowe!
Published 1 month ago by LoveToRead
4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable
I know this received mixed reviews but I really enjoyed it. Great special effects and the polar bear sequences are spectacular. Read more
Published 1 month ago by MISS L D GRAY
5.0 out of 5 stars A good film
I'd have to agree that the difficulty of transferring a book to a film (with limited watching time) is difficult. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Snail
5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous
A beautifully executed film which captures the magical quality of its source material. Sadly its lacklustre box office success make it unlikely that the two sequels will be made
Published 2 months ago by Zeus22
4.0 out of 5 stars The Golden Compass
Daughter performing this at school but had never heard of it so ordered the DVD here, very impressed with the price and prompt delivery.
Published 2 months ago by Julie Longhurst
5.0 out of 5 stars The Golden Compass [DVD] [2007]
Arived today, packaged perfectly, was realy cheap, value for money, the movie itself was really good, i had watched the movie a long time ago and it just popped into my head so i... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mohammed87
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Upscaled DVD vs Bluray on 42" screen - hardly any difference 7 25 Sep 2011
Languages and Audio in Portuguese ?? Please 2 12 Feb 2011
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