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The Golden Compass [Blu-ray] [2007]
 
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The Golden Compass [Blu-ray] [2007]

DVD ~ Nicole Kidman
2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
RRP: £29.99
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Customers buy this item with The Chronicles Of Narnia - The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe [Blu-ray] [2005] DVD ~ Tilda Swinton

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Product details

  • Actors: Nicole Kidman, Eva Green, Ben Walker, Daniel Craig, Clare Higgins
  • Format: Box set, PAL
  • Number of discs: 2
  • Classification: PG
  • Studio: Entertainment in Video
  • DVD Release Date: 28 April 2008
  • Run Time: 109 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B0013MYNYS
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 10,197 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Synopsis

THE GOLDEN COMPASS is an adaptation of the first book in the beloved but controversial fantasy series by Phillip Pullman. The story opens with Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) an orphan girl who lives in an alternate world that is similar to earth, but where people's souls exist outside of their bodies in animal form. The people are ruled by a shadowy and oppressive council known as the Magisterium, which is doing it's best to keep everyone from getting information about what is called 'Dust.' Lyra's Uncle Asriel (Daniel Craig) has been researching Dust, and he has seen to it that Lyra is given safe shelter at Jordan College. But when the visiting Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman) arrives, she asks Lyra to accompany her on a trip to the North to meet the Panserbjorne, a race of armoured bears. Before Lyra leaves, the Headmaster gives her a golden compass, a device which only she can read, and from which she can intuit the truth. Lyra leaves with Mrs. Coulter, but when she learns that her friends have been kidnapped by 'Gobblers' she heads out to find them, and soon joins forces with the nomadic Gyptians, some witches, and an armoured bear called Iorek Byrnison (voice by Ian McKellen). Lyra finds her friends, and so discovers the evil plans the Magisterium has cooked up for the world's children. By the film's end, she has vowed to track down her Uncle Asriel, and to discover the true power of Dust.


Hollywood had a tricky time of taming this tale, as Pullman's books portray religion - the Catholic Church in particular - in a less than flattering light. The film version carefully steers clear of these themes, and instead puts its enormous budget into creating visually stunning effects. While fans of the books may find fault with this streamlined version, children are sure to revel in the many talking animals and whimsical airships.


Product Description

Nicole Kidman, Eva Green, Ben Walker, Daniel Craig, Clare Higgins Director:Chris Weitz

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Customer Reviews

19 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
 (3)
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Average Customer Review
2.9 out of 5 stars (19 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Is this Philip Pullman's Northern Lights ?, 3 Nov 2008
By Mr. J. C. Schofield "Redhighed" (Wakefield, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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.

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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A passable adaptation of an excellent book, 5 Jun 2008
By P. Baxter (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
This is certainly a beautiful looking movie, and looks wonderful on blu-ray, no doubts there. However as an adaptation of Philip Pullman's excellent novel it falls rather short. Much of the commentary of the terrible evils of religion and their attacks on freedom, science, and knowledge, and specifically the catholic church have been removed or dulled hugely, changing the story from a multi faceted and complex tale into a simple adventure yarn.

Also, and this is particularly agregious, the final chapter was completely omitted, robbing the story of any closure at all, and given how this performed in the US box office, thanks to religious nut cases running a smear campaign against it I doubt the two sequels will ever get made.

My advice - read the books instead.
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9 of 9 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 (Essex, U.K.) - See all my reviews
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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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Blu Ray lip sync warning with optical lead
I quite like this film - visuals and audio are spectacular on Blu Ray and I think it's enjoyable, but... Read more
Published 1 month ago by JD

5.0 out of 5 stars Need sub-titles?
Sub-titles are English SDH.

("SDH" is an American term the DVD industry introduced. It is an acronym for "Subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing", and refers to... Read more
Published 3 months ago by C. X. Linton-Willoughby

3.0 out of 5 stars Slow to start, but grows into a decent entertainment.
Not having read the book, I had no preconceptions or inflated expectations. Although I was put off by what I knew of Philip Pullman's reported ideas about life (a militant... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Stokie Dave

4.0 out of 5 stars Not as bad as I was led to believe!
I admit to not having read the book this was based on, and perhaps if I had then I would be just as scathing as some others have been. Read more
Published 5 months ago by M. Scott

5.0 out of 5 stars The Golden Compass
Interested to see how the book was adapted for the big screen. Thought they did a good job. Visually exciting and fast paced too. Great film
Published 6 months ago by Mr. C. J. Jones

1.0 out of 5 stars Trivial
I have watched this movie last night. I haven't read the book: after having seen this movie I doubt I ever will. Pretentious, tedious, shallow, and more than all trivial. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Davide

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful
As I am sure many people, I am not a part of the breed of fans that have read the book and then hastily decided to check out the film. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Steven Stewart

1.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful On Blu-Ray, Shame About The Movie Itself.
I have already seen Golden Compass and wasn't impressed of it's loose plot holes and that ending, it tried to be Lord of the Rings for the younger but really it can't even beat... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Ms. J. F. Gilby

3.0 out of 5 stars Golden Compass- 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... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Spider Monkey

1.0 out of 5 stars Movie: 2/5 Picture Quality: 3~4/5 Sound Quality: 4/5 Extras: 4/5
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:... Read more
Published 14 months ago by LGANS316

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