I had high hopes for this particular franchise, which in the end it is what the movie studios are looking to deliver. A good cast and some excellent source material from author Philip Pullman, with a large budget which should deliver on screen.

In essence, we have the tale of a sassy lassie, with a magical compass that tells ‘the truth’ (a device for Scully & Mulder methinks) and an ensemble of ‘demons’ or ‘external souls’, made up of animals of all kinds including Nicole Kidman’s ginger monkey! The story starts brightly enough, the focus being the children with the implication that Lyra, the child heroine of the piece – is a little adept at telling a tale, and more ballsy than all those around her. With somewhat sporadic appearances from Daniel Craig, Tom Courtenay, Derek Jacobi, etc, etc the film hints at characters, but fails to embody them with any persona, they seem peripheral to all intentions. A slinky Nicole Kidman wafts onscreen and becomes the central part for a while, and doubtless exudes the right mix of menace and charm, but the film’s attention wanders once more as the characters fail to completely convince the viewer.

The movie is yet another where CGI is employed to lavish effect, and the animals are exceptionally good, whilst some of the ideas and set pieces are well implemented. What seems to let it down in fact is an over reliance on the effects and less than required attention to the story. Many of the scenes seem to be employed after telegraphing their upcoming intentions, making it less than enthralling when events do take place, director Weitz should take a long hard look at the resulting lack of evenness in this effort before embarking on the next in the series.

The sound effects are satisfactory, the background theme somewhat reminiscent of the Lord of the Rings, but something worried me about the vocals. Lyra spoke well for long periods, then seemed to drift into Cockney for no apparent reason, that was also true of a few of the other characters (gypsy types etc). I have no idea whether this was just sloppy or intentional.

There are some fine scenes, the ending with the magical battle between animals, soldiers, witches and warlocks was pretty well done, as was some of the meetings (the bear etc). The overall tone of the movie is dark, certainly more menacing than the recent Narnia or Harry Potter movies, and it has a more complex theme than either of those efforts too. But there is an aloofness about it, it does not involve the viewer to the extent that it should, and worse, it chooses to skirt the finer touch of the original source material and rely on the effects to carry it headlong to the finale. I kept seeing inflections of LoTR, Narnia and Harry Potter in everything about the film, that is not to say there is no original screenplay, but there is nothing outstandingly fresh either.

6/10 – Could have been so much better, looks nice and has a good cast, but feels rushed and lacks depth and involvement for the viewer, the magical sparkle seems to fizz and never really dazzles.