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List Price: $28.98Amazon.com's Price: $19.99 You Save: $8.99 (31%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0794043120015
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
Label: New Line Home Video
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: New Line Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: April 29, 2008
Running Time: 113 minutes
Sales Rank: 5277
Studio: New Line Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: December 07, 2007
Editorial Review:
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Atheist blather
The author made no effort to hide his anti-catholic and atheist viewpoint. While the movie itself made for decent science fiction, the story line will definitely feel like a slap in the face to any person well versed/educated in philosophy or theology.
I'd skip this and buy something with a better message (like Chronicles of Narnia).
Rating:  - Decent
Started kind've slow but then got interesting. Movie is part 1 of a 3 part trilogy and sets up for the next one....if there will be one. Movie got a bad rap worldwide due to the possible "religious" aspects of it etc...remember it is FICTION!
Anyway, the polar bear scene is pretty sweet and looks good on bluray.
Rating: - Well, it's pretty to look at
True, it's been a about three or so years since I've read Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, the books upon which this film is based, if you didn't know. But as that time three years ago was my second time going through the trilogy, I still like to think I had a decent memory of them along with a decent opinion. At the risk of offending fans, I always felt Pullman's characters--Lyra, Mrs. Coulter, Will, the whole gang--to be on the weak side of characterization, a few hops from being completely ... Read More
Rating: - 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: 22.63 Mbps
DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 24-bit
(BonusView) PiP Secondary Encode
VC-1
Movie size: 21,609,013,248
DTS 5.1 1509Kbps 24-bit
Contains moderate to heavy application of Digital Video Noise Reduction (DNR)
Rating: - Didn't read the book.... sorry
I never heard of the books but then as far as i knew young Mr. Potter was all the rage. I had to give this film a pass when it first came out even though I wanted to see it. Life got in the way and many moons later I finally viewed the film on DVD, a rental to boot.
I have to say, I'm not sure why this film has so many mixed reviews when I, my wife and college age daughters all loved it.
Why? Because we did. We found the characters to be both complex and sympathetic. The story is very intriquing ... Read More
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