Truth be told

I had been eagerly awaiting "The Golden Compass" from the moment I first saw the trailer. It had me at the armored polar bear! I avoided reading the book so I could immerse myself in its new, non-Hobbit inhabited world. That might have been a mistake. The plot could be confusing, the action is frenetic, characters are introduced and disappear for long stretches of time. Definitely not enough Daniel Craig or Eva Green (gorgeous witch Serafina Pekkala). Not enough humor or heart either. But it is still worth seeing.

The CGI is amazing, and I particularly loved the daemons. They are animals that represent people's souls but live outside the body. It's like having a pet or a witch's familiar, a conscience, advisor and worrywart. The mysterious Dust links daemons with humans, and possibly other worlds. Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig sporting an un-James Bond-like beard) goes searching for this elusive Dust. He entrusts the alethiometer, the titular contraption that can tell the truth about past and future events, to Lyra Belacqua, his spunky, authority-questioning niece. Lyra is ably played by newcomer Dakota Blue Richards. Freddie Highmore is the voice of Pan, Lyra Belacqua's daemon. You can also hear the voices of Kristin Scott Thomas, Ian McShane, Kathy Baker and of course Sir Ian McKellen as Iorek Byrnison, the aforementioned bear. He challenges the ice bear king in a violent Arctic throwdown. But I had the most fun watching the glam and fab Nicole Kidman as henchwoman to the evil Magisterium. From the moment she slinked onscreen as golden girl Marisa Coulter, I thought Dolores Umbridge had found a worthy opponent. Ms. Kidman is an ice princess though, compared to Tilda Swinton's ice queen in Narnia.

Unless the script was watered down by studio executives, I didn't find any overt anti-Catholic Church messages in the film. It does raise questions about truth, dogmatism and free will. I guess we'll have to wait for the sequels to find out more.