The Golden Compass (07, Chris Weitz)

New Line, your creative department really should've seen this as a bomb from a million miles away. After the success of the Narnia and Tolkien series, I guess the idea of putting out a trilogy based on a trilogy of fantasy books seemed like a great idea. Like those other series, this one has its own detailed universe, complete with political factions, religious artifacts, etc. Where the real idiocy from a marketing standpoint comes in is that no one figured that a film whose dominant ideology is that religion is a sham will never do well in the United States. When the opening scene revolves around the search for "dust" (a key component of what makes humans human, we're told) and how the "magisterium" (who happen to wear outfits closely resembling vestments worn by high officials in the Catholic church) wants to censor it, you can instantly tell the kind of narrative you're getting into. Maybe they figured the talking animals would alleviate the tension. Now, please bear in mind that the above is strictly from a marketing perspective. I don't think the arguments made in the film are particularly well done or thought out, but then again, we're dealing with mainstream cinema here. Granted, it's mainstream cinema from an alternate universe in which these types of messages fly with mainstream appeal. Even without any of these notions, the film basically plods with its own mythology, expecting us to care about "dust" or the characters without taking the time to properly invest meaning into them. Sam Elliott plays a pirate cowboy thing with an airship, and he's about the tallest on the level of character investment for me because he's charming and witty. Unfortunately, he's an ancillary character with 5 minutes of screentime. As mentioned, there are talking animals who fight sometimes, but as the first in a prospective trilogy, The Golden Compass really just sets the next two films up. It never really feels like it has a concern other than explaining what I'm sure is a massive world of detail from Philip Pullman's novels. Unfortunately, the execution of even the most basic character development (omg, these are her parents!?!) is handled with the aptitude of a second grader, and as such, I could really give a fly about who's who and how they relate because nothing's built up or handled with any kind of grace. What happened to me is that I watched the film passively, admiring some beautiful CG images and trying to last until the film's end, which, luckily, doesn't get too dragged out. Now, I watched the film because the wifey's a fan of the series, but if you don't have any loved ones who have investment in the film, there's really little ground to recommend the flick upon other than to see a flick that supports the exact opposite values of the core American audience it seeks to draw into theaters. ** out've *****