Yes, I know I was a little harsh with my opening statement but please remember I'm here to tell you the truth in what I thought on the film and not beat around the bush. So let's start it off with the background information oh and by the why I still don't full understand this film even after watching it. So I might be all over the place on this one. So bare with me, Lyra Belacque played by Dakota Blue Richards is a young girl who seems to be living at Jordan College in Oxford in an alternate world. A world were things are just a little bit different, that being human souls are represented by animals which are called daemons. These animals are tied to the humans on all levels and frankly speaking if ones daemon gets killed or injured the human feels the pain of the injury or can even die.

   Here's where it really gets strange. Lyra's Uncle, Lord Asriel played by Daniel Craig has a meeting at jordan college to discuss a substance what they believe is from other world called “Dust” The movie really never explains the real meaning behind this substance and why everyone is so hush, hush about it but you can only really gather from the film is Dust = “Bad” and no one should ever talk about it. Oh and Lord Asriel sets off on journey to find this dust and perhaps travel to a different world without some counsels permission to do so. So now he is a wanted man. Did I lose you yet? It gets worse....

   So then the golden compass comes into play which was given to Lyra by someone at this jordan college. Which she is told “what ever you do don't let Mrs. Coulter (played by Nicole Kidman)see it or even know you have it”. The crazy thing is they never really told you why? or what's Mrs. Coulter role in the film until almost halfway through the movie. So their you are watching the film and Lyra just met Mrs. Coulter and these people at jordan college agreed to let lyra leave with her but yet they say she can't be trusted. Well why the hell not? This was ultimately the problem with the film, the story was just all over the place and because of that I'm going to shorten this up a bit. I could go on forever trying to fully disclose this crazy plot but I won't waste your time. I'm just going to say this, Lyra ends up going on this quest to try and find some lost children and along the way he meets a bunch of people willing to fight for her cause among these being a armored bear, some Gyptians and witches. Enough said.

   Let me guess your lost right? Trust me I know the feeling. I'm not sure where this film went wrong, I ask myself was it the writing? the directing? Something in this film just did not translate correctly. Normally I'm the first one to pick up on plots but this film was just all over the place. The scenes and the storytelling jumped around way to much and because of that allot of the story I'm guessing got lost. There was times I felt like the movie was trying to be the next Lord of the Rings but yet never fully took the time to develop the characters and because of this the film was mediocre at best and I mean mediocre. The only thing I found worth watching was the animal characters which included the giant bears. The fight scenes were done fairly well and during this time I was entertained. Thank god...

   Look I'm here to tell you, The Golden Compass was a bust, plus how could Hollywood even try and market this movie to children considering the plot makes no sense what so ever. I'm sure Hollywood was just betting on the fact that a little girl riding a bear will sell tickets. Well if I can do anything about that, save your money. oh and before I close this out, I almost forgot to talk about Nicole Kidman. I have to say she looked pretty good if you know what I mean. I just hope it wasn't the color grading.