| The Golden Compass (Full-Screen Single-Disc Edition) | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 243 reviews)
Sales Rank: 2219
Category: DVD
Actors: Kathy Bates, John Bett, Jim Carter, Tom Courtenay, Daniel Craig
Director: Chris Weitz
Publisher: New Line Home Video
Studio: New Line Home Video
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
Label: New Line Home Video
Format: Ac-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 113 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.7
MPN: TRNDN37810D
UPC: 794043120015
EAN: 0794043120015
ASIN: B0013A1T8I
Release Date: April 29, 2008
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Studio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 11/11/2008 Rating: Pg13
Amazon.com
A fantasy epic with more than a passing resemblance to the Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia film franchises, The Golden Compass takes place in an alternate universe where each human's soul is embodied in a companion animal called a daemon. Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards), an orphan who's lived most of her life among the scholars at Oxford, is intrigued when her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), announces his plans to travel north to investigate the source of some mysterious particles called Dust. Lyra has little hope of following her uncle until a mysterious woman named Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman, at her most icily beautiful) asks Lyra to travel north as her personal assistant. All is not as it seems, however, and the disappearance of Lyra's friend Roger (Ben Walker) sets her on a dizzying adventure. She does have an alethiometer, or golden compass, that can help her see the truth, and a number of companions, including her shape-shifting daemon, Pantalaimion (voiced by Freddie Highmore of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), polar-bear warrior Iorek Byrnison (voiced by Ian McKellen), Texas aeronaut Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliott), and witch queen Serafina Pekkala (Craig's Casino Royale co-star, Eva Green). Even before its release, The Golden Compass was the subject of controversy over its perceived anti-religious themes. While it does involve an oppressive institution called the Magisterium, it's not overtly religious, particularly to a young viewer. The movie's PG-13 rating should be taken seriously, however. Suitable for an older audience than Narnia (though younger than The Lord of the Rings), it deals with complex concepts, violence (though largely bloodless) and implied death, children and animals in peril, and an unrelentingly ominous and unsettling mood. Despite a few changes and rearrangements, the overall plot of the movie is remarkably faithful to its source material, the first installment of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. It doesn't finish the book, however, and--much like The Fellowship of the Ring did--leaves the viewer hanging in anticipation of the next film, The Subtle Knife, due in 2009. So even though The Golden Compass is impressive--especially with its spot-on cast and terrific visual effects--we probably won't know its full emotional impact until the story is complete. --David Horiuchi
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| Customer Reviews: Read 238 more reviews...
 Not for us! Not a child's movie. November 28, 2008
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
Wow- I have to be honest and say this is the Worst movie I have seen to date. I had heard about the controversy about this movie & religion...and on a 13 hour flight from Australia back to LA- I thought it would be good to watch. I mean the cast alone- had to be decent. It also would give me a chance to watch it before I showed it to my 6 year old. WOW- was I glad I watched it first! First off- do not let you 6 year old watch this movie. IT IS NOT A SMALL CHILD'S MOVIE. A) It is scary. It has deamons in it - that are vicious. Not only that the kids are being kidnapped - stolen. Ok- what child ,and parent for that fact, would not be freaked out by that. Seriously - if I let my kids watch this movie- they would be sleeping with us for the next week. Trust me- not for elementary kids.
B) It's dumb. The movie goes very fast- and apparently leaves out the majority of the information that a person who has NOT read the book needs in order to figure out what the heck is going on. If you have read the book- then you will get it. The rest of us- just still trying to figure all the weird scary stuff in the movie by reading reviews on Amazon;)
Overall- the movie was VERY DISAPPOINTING. I am not even going to mention the entire controversy with the relgion aspect of the movie. That is another can of worms. Bottom Line - Save your precious time - and go rent Narnia. You'll be happy you did. I am still wishing I could get those 2 hours of my life back that I wasted watching this movie.
skip the movie--read the book November 22, 2008
A Hollywood studio spent millions of dollars making a movie that sucks the life out of a fantastic book--what a surprise!
This movie has a fine cast, lavish production values and great special effects. All it lacks is a soul.
By all means, read the book, and the remainder of Pullman's wonderful trilogy. But don't waste your time on this pointless exercise.
Not the worst fantasy movie, but certainly not the best. November 17, 2008
"The Golden Compass" made a decent fantasy movie. Most of the characters in it were very good (I found Lee Scoresby and Iorek Byrnison to be especially likeable). It also had a very unique environment that departed from the normal medieval-ish confines of the fantasy genre. Unfortunately, the story in it seemed quite predictable and uninspiring. I never found it terribly exciting. It held my interest the entire time, but I don't see myself standing in line to wait for the sequels. "The Golden Compass" is a good work to have in your fantasy collection, but there are many better works of fantasy out there.
disappointment November 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The movie was a disapointment. Yeah, the graphics were ok but not as good. The story line deviates from the book. If you are a fan of the book I recommend not buying this movie. It's ok to watch but not to own. They could have done much more but they didn't. I watched the movie before deciding wether to buy it or not and trust me, its not worth your money.
Couldn't make any sense of it November 3, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've got a funny feeling that this was made by massive fans of the book. And they thought that every one else in the world, has read it and where also massive fans of the book. I've never read the book, so maybe if I had the movie might have made some sense.
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